\n\nThe point is not that the number of atoms (or molecules, or whatever other physical form or substance you wish to name) available on earth to human beings is not finite or unable to be enlarged.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course these things are finite.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, the point is that \u00e2\u0080\u009cresources\u00e2\u0080\u009d is not, ultimately, a physical concept; it\u00e2\u0080\u0099s an economic concept.\u00c2\u00a0 And to be limited physically is not necessarily to be limited economically.
\nWhat is and isn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t a resource is determined by human ingenuity.\u00c2\u00a0 Likewise, human ingenuity determines how much \u00e2\u0080\u009cutility\u00e2\u0080\u009d \u00e2\u0080\u0093 satisfaction; gratification; pleasure; relief-of-felt-uneasiness (call it what you will) \u00e2\u0080\u0093 can be gotten at any moment in time from any given unit of physical stuff.\u00c2\u00a0 As long as human ingenuiity is free to create, there is no necessary practical limit to the amount of any \u00e2\u0080\u0098natural\u00e2\u0080\u0099 resource that is available for humans to use productively.
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Read the whole thing. Via On the Finiteness of Resources.
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