[Fis] concrete wall

Dear Pavel,
 
In my opinion, the metaphor of a concrete wall is wrong. There are no
necessary limits to growth because the system may internally develop new
dimensions. Thus, the redundancy may develop more quickly than the
information content. I agree that it can be a delicate balance.
 
The historical evidence is against "limits to growth" because of limits
in resources. This has been a social text since the early 19th century.
David Ricardo predicted that there were limits to the agricultural land
and therefore a famine would be unavoidable in the long run. Malthus is
another well-known prophet in this tradition. Nearly all the predictions
of the Club of Rome were wrong.
 
I don't wish to deny that resources are limited and scarce. But the
resource base of the system is evolving. For example, there was not
enough paper in Europe before the cotton plantages in America began to
deliver textile. Today, there is plenty of paper and we don't need it
anymore for this communication.
 
With kind regards,
 
 
Loet
 
  _____

Loet Leydesdorff
Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR)
Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam
Tel.: +31-20- 525 6598; fax: +31-20- 525 3681
 <mailto:loet@leydesdorff.net> loet@leydesdorff.net ;
<http://www.leydesdorff.net/> http://www.leydesdorff.net/

 
 <http://www.upublish.com/books/leydesdorff-sci.htm> The Challenge of
Scientometrics ; <http://www.upublish.com/books/leydesdorff.htm> The
Self-Organization of the Knowledge-Based Society
 
Received on Tue Nov 25 23:42:44 2003