On Wed, 15 Feb 1995, Chris Driver wrote:
> What is this rubbish about exponential growth? Demographers from most parts of
> the world are agreed that the present trends are heading towards a steady
> population size.
Though some countries do demonstrate either slowed growth or actual
declines in overall population size, they are practically all in the
developed nations with cultures that support such demographics. The
largest reproducers are Third World nations and in spite of piddly little
fights such as seen in Rwanda (piddly is not to say it isn't horrendous,
just that the numbers of deaths are insignificant when measured against
total population and reproduction rate in other countries), they continue
to pump out the people. Part of the problem is that their centuries-old
cultures call for large families, without regards to overall population
size. It is unrealistic and very Western-centric to assume that all
countries will/should adopt the developed Western nation's cultural ways,
as though they are the only proper way to be (I have some Cultural
Anthropologist friends who would like to skin you alive if that is what
you indirectly or directly imply). Population density will get worse
before it gets better and there will be much suffering in the meantime.
These predictions, by the way, do not in any way take into account the
affects of theoretical life-extension treatments/technologies such as are
being discussed here. It is the theoretical problems created by the
theoretical treatments that I argue about.
