starship earth

Originally posted by twhitehead
I suggest starting here:
https://www.gapminder.org/videos/dont-panic-the-facts-about-population/

what I find interesting about that is that the vast bulk of the more recent increase in human population doesn't come from an increase in world birth rate, which has only gone up slightly and is leveling off, but comes from people on average living longer (at least partly because of less poverty).

Obviously, because of the fundamental biological limit to how long a human can live, at some time not very far into the future, the global population growth will dramatically slow down to an extremely slow crawl if not actually start to become slightly negative growth.

There are many things for us to worry about but at least the global human population coming to large isn't one of them.

Originally posted by humy
Obviously, because of the fundamental biological limit to how long a human can live, at some time not very far into the future, the global population growth will dramatically slow down to an extremely slow crawl if not actually start to become slightly negative growth.

I recommend watching the whole thing as well as other videos by Hans Gosling.
You are correct. If Africa follows the trend then world population will top out at 10 - 11 billion then start to fall. I do mention that earlier in the thread. That fall will be interesting, but I don't buy the scare stories promoted by first world countries trying to get people to have more children. The claim is that there will be not enough young people paying in to pension funds to support the retired people. What they don't realise is that a falling population also means a lot of benefits too. Inheritances combine rather than divide, infrastructure can be reduced rather than increased, no need to build more housing etc etc.
Japan has the sort of population dynamics and economy we can expect for most countries in the future. Except they may be an extreme in that they have well below replacement level birth rates.

Originally posted by twhitehead...
The other major problem with revolution is it is extremely difficult to effect major change quickly without disrupting the economy or worse (civil war) and if your desire for change is driven by economic considerations, you need to be really desperate to make things much worse before they get better.

Oddly enough I see tiger retooling his swing.

Today I allow that despite the stupidity of human-kind, we'll be okay.

Originally posted by apathist
Oddly enough I see tiger retooling his swing.

Today I allow that despite the stupidity of human-kind, we'll be okay.

That remains to be seen. Humans will be extinct someday unless we get off this planet and have civilizations on planets around other stars, note I said planets plural.

Originally posted by sonhouse
That remains to be seen. Humans will be extinct someday unless we get off this planet and have civilizations on planets around other stars, note I said planets plural.

Stations first. Landfall, other than proof of concept, is for gathering resources.

Originally posted by sonhouse
That remains to be seen. Humans will be extinct someday unless we get off this planet and have civilizations on planets around other stars, note I said planets plural.

Humans will most likely have evolved or gone extinct long before we get to other star systems.

In fact, a habitable space station would be a far easier option than going to another star.

Originally posted by twhitehead
Humans will most likely have evolved or gone extinct long before we get to other star systems....

I have a thought about that, let me try to capture it in few words.

Instead of evolution by natural selection, we're going to evolve by intentional selection.

Originally posted by apathist
I have a thought about that, let me try to capture it in few words.

Instead of evolution by natural selection, we're going to evolve by intentional selection.

Eugenics, nice.

You intend to create the master race.

Originally posted by apathist
Instead of evolution by natural selection, we're going to evolve by intentional selection.

We will almost certainly dramatically affect our own evolution. However, to what extent it will be intentional or follow what we intend remains to be seen.
The first step I foresee is curing genetic diseases. I believe that will be largely uncontroversial and will go ahead just as soon as the technology is available (within the next five years or so.) There are several known genetic diseases in my family and I would jump at the chance to cure them, although it may not be widespread and cheap within my lifetime.

Right now, interestingly, humans are evolving quite rapidly towards being more African and more whatever poor, uneducated people have - because those are the people having more children. In the past century the human race became significantly more asian and in the next century it becomes more african. Certainly, it seems that we will evolve slightly away from smart and entrepreneurial because those tend to be the first in any society to have less kids.
What trends will affect our evolution in coming centuries I don't know.

Originally posted by Eladar
Eugenics, nice.

You intend to create the master race.

I am fairly sure he expressed no such intentions whatsoever. He is guessing at the future, not planning it.

Originally posted by apathist
I have a thought about that, let me try to capture it in few words.

Instead of evolution by natural selection, we're going to evolve by intentional selection.

Instead of evolution by natural selection, evolve by intentional selection.

Eugenics.

Or are you too stupid to understand it?

Originally posted by Eladar
Instead of evolution by natural selection, evolve by intentional selection.

Eugenics.

Or are you too stupid to understand it?

I guess you are too stupid.

Originally posted by Eladar
I guess you are too stupid.

I guess you had a bit too much to drink over Christmas.

H.saps is an invasive species. Wherever we set down roots, other species vanish.

We shouldn't for example eliminate genetic disease by genetic manipulation?