I ran through a calculation in detail in a different post (The Exponential Growth of Progress) that estimated time spent farming in the year 1800 verse today. In the year 1800 when the global population was 1 billion, humans collectively spent around 830 billion hours growing food. Today humans spend approximately 110 billion hours growing food - even though our population is nearing 8 billion. So, we spend ~700 billion less hours to grow food even though our population is up near 8X.
Great article, Ben! And a little frightening to imagine all the ways these things might play out.....
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Highly interesting and deeply unsettling.
great take as always Ben, thank you, cheers!