Comment 30960

By geoff's two cents (anonymous) | Posted May 09, 2009 at 16:00:17

Darren, I share the sentiment, but have to concur with WRCU2 on this: Eventually, if humans do not limit their reproduction to keep the earth's population static (or work to lower it), life will either cease to exist outright, or become, in Hobbes' words, "nasty, brutish and short".

I agree to some extent with the optimists as well, however: Resource shortage drives innovation, and, to the extent that the need for gainful employment encourages the maturation of the service sector in highly developed economies, one can perhaps foresee an ongoing improvement in standards of living as we all fall over backwards trying to better our fellow man's circumstances.

What I wonder is the following: When will the innovation curve plateau, owing to finite essential resources (ie. not metals, but food, oxygen, water), and how long will it take for us to shift our way of thinking to accommodate this?

Perpetual growth theories must eventually run into this problem.

HAAA writes:
"Growth isn't a sin of humanity, it's the root motivator for all life."

HAAA, unless you wanted to abstract the notion of "growth" to include growth in personal fulfillment, at which point the word becomes practically meaningless, there are plenty of human beings to whom your maxim does not apply - ie. those who choose not to have children or accrue material wealth, but who dedicate a large portion of their lives to improving human existence. The existence of people like these bodes well for an eventual (though hopefully not too distant) sea-change in our current fascination with growth. At any rate, it proves that your maxim is not by any means universal or inevitable.

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