A period of time over which the economy grows by a factor of e. One econoyear ago on Earth was 1989 in the local reckoning; two econoyears ago was 1962. Although theorists are dissatisfied with some unresolved issues in measuring the size of economies, pragmatists have won the battle over the most useful ways to discuss timelines of rising civilizations.
‘Grow’ in what dimension?
The world economy has certainly not grown by all measurable dimensions, or imaginable dimensions, by a factor of e since 1989.
Fair question. I just did the lazy move of looking up world GDP figures. In fact I don’t think that my observers would measure GDP the same way we do. But it would be a measurement of some kind of fundamental sense of “capacity for output (of various important types)”. And I’m not sure whether that has been growing faster or slower than real GDP, so the GDP figures seem a not-terrible proxy.
Important seems to be doing most of the work here. Since even within any given society there is no broad agreement as to what falls into this category.
It’s better to use a more agreed upon measure such as total energy production / consumption such as what the Kardashev scale uses.
‘Grow’ in what dimension?
The world economy has certainly not grown by all measurable dimensions, or imaginable dimensions, by a factor of e since 1989.
Fair question. I just did the lazy move of looking up world GDP figures. In fact I don’t think that my observers would measure GDP the same way we do. But it would be a measurement of some kind of fundamental sense of “capacity for output (of various important types)”. And I’m not sure whether that has been growing faster or slower than real GDP, so the GDP figures seem a not-terrible proxy.
Important seems to be doing most of the work here. Since even within any given society there is no broad agreement as to what falls into this category.
It’s better to use a more agreed upon measure such as total energy production / consumption such as what the Kardashev scale uses.