Qing Dynasty China had "decoupled" its currency from specie by way of the first paper-based currency I'm aware of. See: Richard von Glahn, Fountain of Fortune: Money and Monetary Policy in China 1000-1700 (1996).

But that has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with decoupling the actual economy from its physical foundations. Long after Qing, China remained fundamentally dependent on rice and wheat harvests (and suffered tremendous population losses, as much as 8 million deaths) many centuries later.

The wealth-tracking representation has been decoupled from any substance with intrinsic value, but the economy has not.

Put another way: you could have a monetary system in which currency was entirely backed in precious gold and silver, and introduce huge quantities of same to your economy ... without increasing the actual wealth of the nation by Adam Smith's definition, "annual produce and labour of the nation". This was precisely the situation Spain found itself in following its conquest of the Americas and importation of vast quantities of South American gold and silver.

...No crap it's a zero-sum game! We've been screaming it from the bloody rooftops while economists and charlatans have gone on and on chasing alpha, instead of really focusing on breaching the most critical breakthroughs we need. Near limitless clean power, closed cycle industrial processes, and bloody innovations in either transport, agri-husbandry, or medicine.

But no.

War. War, real estate, and more pretend finance for finance sake. Either that or mass producing the tools of tyranny.

At some point unlimited growth would mean the heat death of earth. Remember all used energy no matter how green the source emits heat.

Even stars have limits to their energy. If you don't believe in limits then you aren't accepting physical reality.

The optimal strategy now for unlimited growth and some future limit on growth bei g hit when there are competitors are likely the same. Take advantage of it as much as possibly for as long as possibly.

Given two countries where one lints it's economic growth and the other doesn't, if they're given another few hundred years before a limit is hit, which one is in a better place to respond when that limit is hit? Does the country that minutes itself even still exist as it did, or was it taken over by a stronger one (whether economically, militarily or culturally)?

I'd really like to see you point to specific instances of this.

I could point to any number of examples refuting this, but really prefer you lay your cards on the table first.

Again, I'd really like to know who specifically you are referring to with "the people who argue against growth never have any answers they want to elaborate on".

I've mentioned numerous specific examples refuting that here: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37399144>