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phiwong t1_itr5dg8 wrote

There is no guarantee of GDP (a proxy and not always accurate measure of progress) growth in any particular locality over any particular period of time.

In very broad terms though:

a) populations are still increasing. More people implies more resources to do things. It also implies more people needing goods and services like food, shelter etc.

b) education and healthcare is generally improving. Healthier and more educated populations are expected to be more productive and for longer

c) technological progress and deployment is increasingly global. More efficient and better utilization of resources will generally increase output for a given amount of input

In short, although unlimited growth is not sustainable, there is not any good reason to believe humanity has peaked in terms of producing goods and services. Of course wars, pandemics, asteroid strikes and devastating changes to the environment might one day cause that but that is far beyond anyone's ability to predict.

In the long long term, of course, not even the sun is expected to live forever, so there is probably an end-point to humanity's survival on this planet.

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