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Ask Slashdot: What Happens If We Perfect Age Reversing?
ourlovecanlastforeve writes: With biologists getting closer and closer to reversing the aging process in human cells, the reality of greatly extended life draws closer. This brings up a very important conundrum: You can't tell people not to reproduce and you can't kill people to preserve resources and space. Even at our current growth rate there's not enough for everyone. Not enough food, not enough space, not enough medical care. If — no, when — age reversal becomes a reality, who gets to live? And if everyone gets to live, how will we provide for them?
We're already starting to see population growth top out as more nations join the developed world. In Europe, we're below replacement rate. In Japan, it's stoking fears of a labor crisis. India and China are falling to near replacement levels in the urban areas, and rural will likely follow as prosperity is extended there.
We don't need to make this choice. Continue with the education of women, liberalization of labor laws, and growing market economies. People will naturally produce fewer children if a) they know the ones they produce will likely survive to adulthood and b) their own welfare increases based on the fewer number they bring to adulthood. Hell, tie Basic Income amounts to having a set number of kids -- you have 3, well you just had 25% of your UBI revoked. Sorry buddy.
As we leave the solar system radiation should decrease the further out we go.
Just no.
You are confusing Solar radiation with cosmic radiation... and they are largely very different things.
The "solar wind" is largely photons and other, relatively low-energy charged particles from the sun. (Note the word "relatively".) Which is GOOD for us here on Earth. Because cosmic radiation has a much larger component of HIGH energy particles. The solar wind interacts with Earth's magnetic fields in such a way as to shield it from the cosmic high-energy particles.
But it's the cosmic high-energy particles that penetrate far enough into the atmosphere to ionize particles of matter, which form nuclei around which clouds form. So... high sunspot activity generally means fewer clouds, which in turn means it gets hotter. When "solar storm" activity is low, more cosmic rays leak in, forming more clouds, cooling the weather.
Unfortunately, it is these high-energy particles which require the most shielding. And in general, cells are more prone to damage than radiation-hardened silicon chips.
"2000 gallons of water for 1 pound" is an exaggeration of a worst-case scenario; even feedlots don't use this much water, and most cattle spend most of their lives on pasture.
I raise some dairy animals on grass, so I can help with a rough calculation based on real life.
I get a calf.
Calf walks around eating grass.
Every day I put out 10 gallons of fresh water, of which the steer drinks 5-7
20 months later, I get about a quarter ton of meat, a square yard or two of leather, and a lot of good fertilizer and dog treats.
So about 6000 gallons of water for 500 pounds of meat, roughly 12 gallons a pound.
Then there's the matter of the unused 3-5 gallons of water that I dump out when I clean the bucket each day, and the cow's urine...none of that water is 'gone,' it's feeding the pasture plants that feed the steer. And even the crappiest McDonald's beef probably spent most of its life on pasture; the feedlots are only for jacking up weight (with water mostly) at the end.
When more cosmic rays leaked in, the climate didn't change. Richard Alley mentioned (at 42:00 in his 2009 AGU talk) that beryllium proxy data reveal a spike in cosmic ray intensity during the "Laschamp anomaly" ~40,000 years ago, but the corresponding oxygen isotope proxy for temperature didn't change unusually during that time period.