Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf
Why do you think that? Essentially all of modern science & technology was developed by the US & western Europe, with a combined population that only reached the 500 million level a few decades ago.
Because that's a fairly common ballpark estimate of the population which the Earth can sustain, while allowing everyone a fairly decent standard of living. If you have a better one, I'll listen.
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Because it took exactly the number of people who have existed, and currently exist, for things to be as they are now. It took all of the competition, all of the conflict, all of the innovation, all of the failed ideas, and all of the successful ideas from billions of people to arrive at the level of technology and prosperity we now enjoy.
Reduce the competition, reduce the number of minds, and reduce the diversity of thought, and you reduce the number of human experimenters, and the number of useful innovations.
I don't know what the ideal population would be. Currently it seems fine to me, but I question that anytime I have to get somewhere in Portland between the hours of 6am and 7pm. I'm also not expert enough to know what challenges a large population will have on resource availability in the future.