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not been asked and found in Aristotle or Plato. There is no single question. I've
just finished reading a topic about the future of the human being. The problem
which preoccupies many people - physicists, chemists, astronomers - is the future of
the universe. They have always talked about this, but now the question has become
“why?”. Because they say that there is more matter in the invisible universe than
in the visible. And now they are trying to get knowledge of the invisible matter -
i.e. matter which cannot be seen. And the way they go about that is by asking
questions and trying to suggest why?, why?. The Chinese language, the old Chinese
doesn't have the word “why?”. They knew only for what purpose. As I said, with-
out the Greeks we would still be a contemplative community or society. One of my
colleagues, one day, he says (and I said to him “that's very interesting, because that
idea has something to do with what Aristotle said”): “Why should I read Aristotle?
He lived twenty five centuries before me. I live now”. I talk about it in one of my
papers. I get my assistant and ask how far back the references go of a man who is
publishing today, and it will be in the eighties, in 1985 or 6, say. He's in the New
Wave. He's not been pushed by, and he's making it. That is the idea. And this is
particularly true because it reflects this type of broker business philosophy.
Antonio Valero: In the Promethean Condition of Viable Technologies you pro-
pose in the end that conservation is the only solution.
Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen: Do you know why I proposed conservation? Be-
cause there's some bad weather coming?. . .some snow, and I wont be able to go
to the grocer's? Because I have to live for three or four days with what I already
have in the pantry? Because I should eat a little less than usual every day? No.
That's not my idea. My reason is this -In the past there have been similar crises.
At one time there was a wood crisis, such a big crisis that people tried to economise.
And in England and even in Norway there are rules and restrictions attached to
the cutting of trees. And coal wasn't considered until the 16th century in Europe.
The Chinese had it earlier and they used it to make oils. So they knew about it,
but it was a very di cult thing to get. You scrambled over the water and there
was the mine. All mines have plenty of water in them below the ground, so what
do you do? Well, to get at the coal you have to take out the water, so hundreds of
horses were used to drain it from the mines - the power of animals was used to get
at the coal. And the coal has, say, a kilogram of energy in it so it is not worth using
the energy of the animals to get the water out and thereby get at the coal. Then
Prometheus' second gift arrived - the steam engine. Now, you see, at that time
there was a change. We know that there have been crises in the past very similar
to those we face nowadays. And we know that there was a solution. A Promethean
solution. Now, the Economy postponed the real catastrophe for some years. My
idea is that with conservation we gain time and in gaining time we make it more
probable for a third Prometheus to arrive. If it is to arrive. We don't know what is
 
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