The Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil.

A forward-looking observation about how major technological eras tend to shift because better alternatives emerge, not because the key resource is fully depleted. It is often used in discussions of energy transitions and innovation.

The idea is that societies move on from dominant resources when new technologies and systems become more effective, cheaper, or cleaner. Likewise, oil’s dominance is expected to decline due to superior substitutes and changing economics rather than physical scarcity.