Technology can produce goods with greater intrinsic value for less energy and fewer materials. A modern CPU is vastly more capable that the supercomputers of the 90’s, but costs less to produce and consumes far less energy. More importantly it means the market for CPUs and their contribution to GDP has exploded.
There are ultimate physical limits to how much information can be processed with a fixed amount of energy, but we aren’t near those limits yet. I’d argue that if you factor in technological growth you could go for much longer than 500 years before running out of energy, even if you limit yourself to a type 1 civilisation.
There are ultimate physical limits to how much information can be processed with a fixed amount of energy, but we aren’t near those limits yet. I’d argue that if you factor in technological growth you could go for much longer than 500 years before running out of energy, even if you limit yourself to a type 1 civilisation.