[suicidaldude]

Well, based on what you've written, I wouldn't say you have spent a "great deal of time" on it. No offense though, but you've said a lot of mistakes.

First of all, no, the theory does not state that the price will go "high enough that people will give up".

Second of all, no, hyperinflation and economic depressions NEVER "spur out investment". They put investment to a halt.

Third of all, no, we don't have any alternatives. It's not that we don't have alternatives "now", or "scalable" or "cheap enough as of now", but we just have NO alternatives, and we never will. When one spends a "great deal of time" reading about peak oil, they kinda learn that through their first 1/2 hour of reading. Again, no offense. Let's not even go back on this algae hoax, or the bioethanol hoax, or any other hoax. Just read a "great deal" and you'll stop talking about their "potential to replace" oil by yourself.

Fourth of all, we don't have "decades of oil". We are already on the plateau, slightly past peak, and an important decrease of production is to be expected in the next years, not decades.

Finally, food production is 100% deoendent on oil, for pesticides, fertilizers, machinery, transportation... where's all your "bioethanol" gone, dude?

And there are also the plastics.

So don't get me wrong, I can sympathize with the fact that you are still in denial about the fate of the industrial civilization and the coming death of 90+% of mankind, but it'll happen anyway. So you should get past your denial state pretty soon and start facing the truth. Praying for the Great Solar Panel in the Sky will not change your future or mine.

But this is not the place to talk about that. PM me if you will.