Population Control

[DAVOUT]

Intelligence and literacy are not genetically transmitted. How can this be written in a university.

[CerberusIV]

This is fine for the smart people. Within a couple of generations smart people will be very scarce, very well paid, get excellent health care and probably be cloned (if cloning turns out to be practical).

[Q Classic]

spiff, davout? have you been to the link?

[Spiffor]

Oh, it's the Onion. I expected the article to be a joke (Scholars have a much more subtle elitism than that), but I feared it based itself on real average age of spawning.

[rah]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
spiff, davout? have you been to the link?

Obviously not.

[Q Classic]

just for comparison: the onion

[SlowwHand]

I think all here should go get their nuts cut.
That would solve potentially hundreds of problems down the road.

[Q Classic]

sloww, unlike you, i have a peculiar desire to keep mine.

(the original phrase i'd used was peculiar attachment, and boy, that could be taken in all sorts of queer ways.)

[SlowwHand]

Just think of that bastard Che really gets taken in by BG.
Bunch of little commies-in-training running around.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Just think of that bastard Che really gets taken in by BG.
Bunch of little commies-in-training running around.

YAY !

[Dis]

eugenics, not as evil as it sounds you know

[PeteH]

Whle Malthus may have gotten figures wrong, the basic premise is sound, and has been born out in practice. Every increase in food supply has been met with an increase in population. If you woudl like some interesting figures to look at, look at figures of fosile fuel usage vs population. In effect, our population explosion has used limited energgy stored in the earth to fuel our growth, and will fall with those supplies as well I believe.

In just a quick search for somethign online I found this:

from http://www.holon.se/folke/kurs/logexp/logexp_en.shtml

"The human population has changed very little during 99% of its existence of a million years or so. During this time, the population increased to about 10 millions. Only during the last one percent of its history, the human population has changed dramatically.
During the time from the first settlements to medieval time, the population changed from about 10 millions to around 500 millions. This change occurred in only 10,000 years, or about 1% of the time of our species has existed.

From medieval time to about 1850 there was a stepwise increase of the population.A large change occurred from medieval time to about 1850. In 0.1% of our species existence, the population doubled to about 1 billion.
After 1850, industrialization occurred and fossil fuel usage began. The slope of the curve changed dramatically (even in logarithmic terms). At this break, the human population got the opportunity of using more energy in an activity than it gives back (EROI below 1, The rabbit limit.).
This opportunity is used in nearly all industrial processes, including food production. In about 100 years, 0.01% of the existence of the species, the population grew to 6 billions.
Although we often regard the world of today as 'the normal world', this 0.01% is from an evolutionary viewpoint highly un-normal. Genetically, we are adapted to be hunter-gatherers in a spacious environment, not to the present situation. "

http://www.holon.se/folke/kurs/logexp/logexp.JPG

edit: Thanks missed that in the preview

[DRoseDARs]

EDIT: Fixed.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
How would you define unsustainable in terms of % increase in population?

The same way civ3 does

[DRoseDARs]