Comment by Retric

You can’t extract more energy from ocean tides than are actually in the ocean tides.

> Exponential growth is real

It’s really not. 99% of the energy used by humanity is still sunlight used to grow crops the same it’s been for thousands of years, and crop land use hasn’t been increasing exponentially. The majority of growth has been from efficiency gains not utilizing more energy.

Our ancestors realized irrigation and selective breeding allowed for more production from the same land. Fertilizer, better breeds, insecticides, meant more yield and automation meant less labor but the underlying energy input is unchanged barring increases in land under cultivation or the mouthes of livestock.

Instead many historic curves look exponential when you ignore the underlying population growth driving the whole thing and the recent reductions in fertility.