Top all-time · #17647
Ugo Bardi
Personal blog · senecaeffect.substack.comscienceeconomics
Ugo Bardi writes The Seneca Effect, a personal blog at senecaeffect.substack.com about science and economics. Since 2023, 4 different Hacker News readers have linked it 23 times, most often “A New Interpretation of the Rise of Intelligence: Falling CO2 Levels Was Key”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Ugo Bardi's Seneca Effect Substack for posts on CO2, whether plastics are killing people, and ultraprocessed foods. One commenter says they think very highly of the author.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Collapses are the way the universe gets rid of the old to leave space for the new. It was noted for the first time by the Roman Philosopher Lucius Anneaus Seneca (4 BCE-65 CE) and it is called today the "Seneca Effect.". with hund
Most-linked posts?
- /p/are-plastics-killing-us2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2024-05-09
- A New Interpretation of the Rise of Intelligence: Falling CO2 Levels Was Key2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-06-22
What Hacker News says?
https://senecaeffect.substack.com/p/exterminations-a-review
Comment linking /p/exterminations-a-review
on “FOSS infrastructure is under attack by AI companies”Submitted Modeling the Risk of a Population Collapse as a story · 7 points
HN discussionAre plastics killing us? - by Ugo Bardi - The Seneca Effect https://senecaeffect.substack.com/p/are-plastics-killing-us
Comment linking /p/are-plastics-killing-us
on “Researchers develop ‘transparent paper’ as alternative to plastics”Submitted Exterminations in Progress as a story · 4 points
HN discussionhttps://senecaeffect.substack.com/p/are-plastics-killing-us
Comment linking /p/are-plastics-killing-us
on “Roman Empire's use of lead lowered IQ levels across Europe, study finds”Submitted RIP Facebook as a story · 3 points
HN discussionCareful! https://senecaeffect.substack.com/p/the-other-side-of-co2
Comment linking /p/the-other-side-of-co2
on “Air Purifiers as White Noise Machines”Submitted How Not to Govern the Commons. The Reasons of 50 Years of Failures as a story · 3 points
HN discussionUgo Bardi: Are Plastics killing us? https://senecaeffect.substack.com/p/are-plastics-killing-us
Comment linking /p/are-plastics-killing-us
on “FDA denies petition against use of phthalates in food packaging”Submitted The Dark Face of Degrowth: Argentine's President, Javier Milei as a story · 3 points
HN discussionUgo Bardi has a post: https://senecaeffect.substack.com/p/what-if-malthus-was-righ...
Comment linking /p/what-if-malthus-was-right
on “The demographic future of humanity: facts and consequences [pdf]”Submitted The War for Mineral Non-Resources as a story · 2 points
HN discussionNothing new: https://senecaeffect.substack.com/p/the-end-of-the-consumer-...
Comment linking /p/the-end-of-the-consumer-society-and
on “The militarization of Silicon Valley”Submitted The Imminent Singularity in the World Economy as a story · 2 points
HN discussionWell, the book is copyrighted I guess, but at least his ideas are spread. Ugo Bardi is a very cool person. This is his blog: https://senecaeffect.substack.com/
Comment linking /
on “The Seneca Effect: Growth is slow but collapse is rapid (2017) [pdf]”Submitted A New Interpretation of the Rise of Intelligence: Falling CO2 Levels Was Key as a story · 1 points
HN discussionRelated to obesity Are plastics killing us? https://senecaeffect.substack.com/p/are-plastics-killing-us I think very highly of ugo bardi
Comment linking /p/are-plastics-killing-us
on “How Bad Are Ultraprocessed Foods, Really?”Submitted Seneca Collapses: The Case of Guano Production in Peru as a story · 1 points
HN discussionUgo Bardi has an interesting take on CO2 and intelligence: https://senecaeffect.substack.com/p/a-new-interpretation-of-...
Comment linking /p/a-new-interpretation-of-the-rise
on “The bottleneck might be the air in the room”Submitted Wishing for Collapse: The Unintended Path of Depletionism as a story · 1 points
HN discussion"The Simon–Ehrlich wager was a 1980 scientific wager between business professor Julian L. Simon and biologist Paul Ehrlich, betting on a mutually agreed-upon measure of resource scarcity over the decade leading up to 1990." Interesting. But the club of Rome predicted in the 70ies problems for the first half of the 21st century. And I think they are going to win the bet. Two blogs I can recommend: 1. https://senecaef…
Comment linking /
on “Lithium Price Collapsed 77% in a Year, as Demand and Production Both Surged”Things are complex. "If this was true, we'd see commodity prices going through the roof as a long term trend." Yes. Sure. Like USD 1000 a barrel. But wait, the economy is already collapsing at USD 100 a barrel. Fact is, the workers can only afford products within some price range. In fact I believe we will indeed never run out of oil. A lot of oil will just stay there, where it is. In the ground. The question is, ar…
Comment linking /p/the-decline-of-the-west-according
on “Ask HN: Assuming this 2023 LtG paper is correct, how do you prepare?”