[dinopello]

Was Malthus right?

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Malthus.html

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')is main contribution was to highlight the relationship between food supply and population. Humans do not overpopulate to the point of starvation, he contended, only because people change their behavior in the face of economic incentives

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', 'I') also offer the further, completely unrestrained growth of Capitalism, increased/almost unlimited personal freedom ...

[kublikhan]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', 'H')e's got to be pulling your leg. We don't need no stinkin' planet! Maybe he's yanking your breathing tube

[Newfie]

More likely he is just getting his jollies by leading us around in absurd circles, because he can and we can't stop following.

[KaiserJeep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'M')ore likely he is just getting his jollies by leading us around in absurd circles, because he can and we can't stop following.

[Lore]

I consider myself a pragmatist. If that leads me into the direction of pain and misfortune, so be it. Am I depressed about it? Not at all. I feel saddened for the ignorance that abounds which is taking humans down the path of no return, but then again nothing lasts forever. Enjoy everyday like it was your last, someday it will be.

[Subjectivist]

http://youtu.be/QAkW_i0bDpQ

[JohnnyOnTheFarm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', '
')The Solar System has enough space, enough power, enough water, and enough raw materials to build space habitats for Trillions of people.

[dorlomin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', 'W')as Malthus right?

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Malthus.html

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')is main contribution was to highlight the relationship between food supply and population. Humans do not overpopulate to the point of starvation, he contended, only because people change their behavior in the face of economic incentives

[KaiserJeep]

I think Malthus was right on the money with his math, but left one factor out of his equation. He correctly showed that human population growth is an exponential curve, while food production grows only on a geometric curve.

What he did not understand was the power of technology. He did not realize that the power of fossil fueled machines plus fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides would enable one farmer to produce the food that required 3000 farmers using 19th century Agrarian methods.

Ultimately, Malthus will be proved correct, after the exponential population growth overcomes that incredible 3000X geometric multiplier - or we run out of cheap fossil fuels with no affordable replacement power sources.

The tragedy is that there were roughly 1B humans to starve in 1800. There will be 8B or 10B or 12B by the time we run out of cheap fossil energy.

Malthus was not the only one to fail to anticipate the impact of technology. So did Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Nor did any of the 19th century minds anticipate the tech we have today which enables space travel and opens the rest of our Solar System to exploitation for the benefits of humans.

[dorlomin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', 'I') think Malthus was right on the money with his math, but left one factor out of his equation. He correctly showed that human population growth is an exponential curve, while food production grows only on a geometric curve.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', ' ')Planets are not necessary or desirable.

[Quinny]

too?

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dorlomin', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', 'W')as Malthus right?

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Malthus.html

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')is main contribution was to highlight the relationship between food supply and population. Humans do not overpopulate to the point of starvation, he contended, only because people change their behavior in the face of economic incentives

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', ' ') They are nasty places at the bottom of energy-expensive gravity wells. You can transit from one zero-G environment to another with minimal energy expenditure as long as you don't have to descend and then lift off in a gravity well.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', ' ') But the most capable cannibals - the fraction of 1% that can compete for food better than the others, survive - and human evolution takes a step forward after the weak ones are culled (eaten).

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JohnnyOnTheFarm', 'T')rue. But it might be considered starry eyed dreaming in a world that thinks a small drop in production or increase in consumption of a single, admittedly valuable, commodity will cause some big dieoff or whatever.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', 'I') think Malthus was right on the money with his math, but left one factor out of his equation. He correctly showed that human population growth is an exponential curve, while food production grows only on a geometric curve.

What he did not understand was the power of technology.

[KaiserJeep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MonteQuest', '-')snip-

Then why not build a dome here on earth, rather than at the top of an "energy-expensive gravity well"?

[KaiserJeep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MonteQuest', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', ' ')Planets are not necessary or desirable.

[KaiserJeep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MonteQuest', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', ' ') But the most capable cannibals - the fraction of 1% that can compete for food better than the others, survive - and human evolution takes a step forward after the weak ones are culled (eaten).