Most Technological Developments Were Made Possible
By the Advancing Efficiency in Land-based Food Production Over the Past Several
Thousand Years. What Role Will
Aquaculture and Our Oceans Play in Enabling any Future Technological Advancements?
Technological advancements such as auto engines,
harnessing electricity, machines, vaccines, the internet, computers, or cellphones
have all been made possible because humans became efficient land-based food
producers and this allowed a shrinking few to produce the food for a growing
many. This freed creative minds from constantly
contemplating how to obtain food from hunting, gathering, or farming. Once freed from this all-consuming quest for
food, the creative potential of the human mind blossomed to invent all the
luxuries and necessities that we take for granted today. Without this few producing food for the many,
we may have never reached our current state of technological advancement where most
of us now regard cellphones as absolute necessities.
Humans have nearly maximized the productive capacity of
the Earth’s terrestrial resources through domesticating its wild plants and
animals and claiming productive land areas for planting crops and grazing
livestock. This has resulted in the
supplanting of nearly all the original terrestrial wild species and their
habitats. For humans to continue to
advance technologically, the food supply may need to expand. What roles will aquaculture and our ocean
resources play in this?
· Is it
inevitable that humans will come to dominate the oceans (as they have come to
dominate the land) by domesticating more aquatic animals and plants and
claiming more areas for aquaculture?
· Is it inevitable that someday ocean aquaculture will
supplant wild fisheries much like agriculture eventually replaced land-based
hunting and gathering practices?
· Is it inevitable that our oceans will someday cease
to provide windows showing what ocean life was like on Earth before humans
became dominant?
