This led one audience member to put the idea to Ms. Huffington that maybe the U.S. should become a third world country.

On the other side of the debate were the optimistic technologists, lead by the prolific inventor Ray Kurzweil, who points to the dramatically increasing price-performance of phones and computers, to assert that innovation in solar energy, battery storage (and other areas such as water purification, hydroponic food production) will solve both scarcity and environmental issues long before they become critical.

His underlying message is that we just need to produce and consume smarter, not less. […]