The Need to Breed

[Rayaan]

I'm not so sure about Malthus. There has never been a significant and sustained reduction in overall human population in recorded history, and any setbacks have obviously been overcome in one way or another. His theory always struck me as a variation of biblical apocalypse without all the crazy drugs imagery. I find cause for optimism when the idea of one day constructing pretty much anything at all through molecular nano-assemblers is, at the very least, considered a plausible theory.

I think that Malthus was correct at least in his basic principle that the human population is growing almost exponentially, while resources are limited. Hence in an essay he wrote that "the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to reproduce subsistence for man." (An Essay on the Principle of Population, p 13). That part sounds reasonable to me, at least. Yes, he may have misjudged our capacity for increasing food production through technological innovation. It is quite an achievement that humans today - despite their vastly increased numbers - are consuming more calories per day than people who lived a few centuries ago. This was accomplished only by the advancement of technology. Nonetheless, the fact is that the basic resources are still limited, and so there may eventually come a time when this limit (whatever it might be) will impose strong constraints on human population growth.