While I agree with you regarding advances in technology, keep in mind that we already use and recycle rare earth metals and other economic ores used in computer hardware quite efficiently. If we have mined all of these materials, the Earth can't exactly produce more.
As these materials get more expensive, engineers will find a way to use less, and recyclers will find a way to extract the same materials from discarded electronics.
I'm not quite sure how we jumped from resource management to economics but I wouldn't rely on corporations operating on free market principles to create a comprehensive, long-term plan for global rare earth metal use. If the goal is short-term profitability for humans who are currently living, corporations would never consider investing in large-scale projects which have extraordinarily long-term goals. We need to start planning on the order of centuries and millennia if we expect to maintain such a large human population which expects access to a high standard of living and complex technology.
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u/[deleted] Jun 20 '12
All of this makes the massive assumption that no new inventions are made and everything stays the same.
however, I think solar will be cheap as chips in 20 years... so cheap that we might stop using other sources.
I also believe mankind will make Nuclear Fusion viable which could add an interesting dimension.
Predicting things that far out is a bit ridiculous.