The null hypothesis for why the growth rate of humans has slowed is simply that we’ve reached our new technological carrying capacity in some way. The pure exponential growth phase we experienced in the last hundred years is similar what happens when you introduce an invasive species to a new area. Huge explosion, and you end up with startlingly high population numbers, but they do eventually stabilise.
It’s of course more pleasant to live in that explosive growth phase, because that means there’s abundance to enjoy, but I think it’s foolish to think we can do that forever. Eventually you run out of atoms in the universe. It has to stop somewhere.
Yup, growth sooner or later plateaus. Especially since most of those atoms are hydrogen in stars. Still, there’s a great deal of room for growth in our solar system, with sufficient technology.
The null hypothesis for why the growth rate of humans has slowed is simply that we’ve reached our new technological carrying capacity in some way. The pure exponential growth phase we experienced in the last hundred years is similar what happens when you introduce an invasive species to a new area. Huge explosion, and you end up with startlingly high population numbers, but they do eventually stabilise.
It’s of course more pleasant to live in that explosive growth phase, because that means there’s abundance to enjoy, but I think it’s foolish to think we can do that forever. Eventually you run out of atoms in the universe. It has to stop somewhere.
Yup, growth sooner or later plateaus. Especially since most of those atoms are hydrogen in stars. Still, there’s a great deal of room for growth in our solar system, with sufficient technology.