"How many people can Earth support?" Topic

"There are nearly 8 billion people living on Earth today, but our planet wasn't always so crowded.

Around 300,000 years ago, when Homo sapiens likely first appeared, our total population was small, between 100 and 10,000 people. There were so few people at the start, that it took approximately 35,000 years for the human population to double in size, according to Joel E. Cohen, head of the Laboratory of Populations at the Rockefeller University and Columbia University in New York City. After the invention of agriculture between 15,000 and 10,000 years ago, when there were between 1 million and 10 million individuals on Earth, it took 1,500 years for the human population to double. By the 16th century, the time needed for the population to double dropped to 300 years. And by the turn of the 19th century, it took a mere 130 years…"

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Armand

A lot depends on life expectancy and number of children per family.

In the 19th Century, large families of 10 or more children were common. Then again, half would die before maturity.

If someone discovers a way to extend our lifespan, everything goes out the window quickly.

Do orbital settlements count?

If someone discovers a way to extend our lifespan, everything goes out the window quickly.

We've been doing that for hundreds of years.

Do orbital settlements count?

It depends on where the resources come from. For an orbital settlement, most like back from Earth.

People have tried to export their problems for centuries, too. Basically, all this does is allow the problem to get worse and us to become more dependent on the system that makes it worse, making it harder to fix.

Exobotany on Mars is our first hope. Hope because the real hope is that the pain of our problems becomes greater than then pain of that option before we pass the PONR.

Uhm … Merry Christmas?

Thanks.

Armand