DU Poll on World Population

[MH1]

45. Nope, Malthus was not the last. But your argument is absurd. Resources are finite.

"Capacity grows exponentially along with population." << Just GMAFB. That makes no sense at all.

I've heard the theory that capacity grows with technology. But even that is a pretty risky plan for the future.

In fantasy world perhaps one day humanity will have developed a universal alchemy where matter is energy and energy is matter and we can just transform anything into whatever we need, and maybe there is enough energy accessible via sunlight or whatever, that we could support ANY number of people.

Until then there will be some limit on population.

The fact that you think 10 trillion is "simply an argument ad absurdum" implies that you think 10 trillion really would be too many people, at least at the current state of technology. Therefore you have just expressed that you believe there IS a limit. Now we are just arguing over where is the line.

I'd say given the pace of extinctions, humanity is having a huge impact on the biosphere. But if other species are irrelevant except as they support humans, I guess a loss of a few here or there just doesn't matter, does it?