Editing Blog/2025-10-11/There Is A Tide In The Affairs Of Men (section)

=== Growth Requires Constant Work ===

Degrowther rhetoric often includes the notion of "growth forever is a cancer". There are many things that are wrong with it<ref name=no-degrowth/> but the far more important thing is that "growth forever" is really really hard and so we're about as likely to accident into it as girls who go to the gym are to accident into becoming Arnold.

So each of these things that seem like the "actual foom thing, this time for real, no, honestly" are not, in fact, foom things but more likely to be the very next step required for us to maintain our long-term average of 1.9% growth. Considering how many civilizations we have seen fail at this, and the fact that we are on the precipice of doing so ourselves, these will all take work. The Great Filter may well be the unwillingness of civilizations to "show up every day". If no one else has managed it, I hope Humanity will be the first.