Response to Keith Lynch's anti-mathematical flame

[Rick McGeer]

"For food grows like 1,2,3, and man liek 2,4,8..."

Malthus had fun extrapolating exponential growth curves, too. So did
Forrester and Ehrlich. Doomsday hasn't hit yet, and it doesn't look any
more likely to me than when Malthus wrote, or Forrester.

Exponential growth curves *always* flatten, for one reason or another.
Populations either get seriously whacked (a plague, war) or get rich and
thus stop breeding. [True enough -- as Lady Jackson used to point out,
on a national scale the only *sure* method of birth control is national
wealth. The United States would currently be suffering a population
*decline* if it were not for immigration. Try that the next time some
character flames away about breeding like flies in East LA!] For
this reason, space may well be the solution to our future population
problems, not because a significant percentage of humanity will emigrate,
but because space is gonna make us all stinking rich.

-- Rick.

[Jerry Marco]

> [stuff about exponential population growth inevitably slowing down]

>
> For
> this reason, space may well be the solution to our future population
> problems, not because a significant percentage of humanity will emigrate,
> but because space is gonna make us all stinking rich.
>
> -- Rick.

Yeah. And nuclear power will be so cheap to produce we won't be billed
for it. And Esperanto will be the universal language, and put an end
to war. And smart computers will mean that people don't have to do
any work unless they want to. And if farmers borrow money to upgrade
their equipment their financial worries will be over. Gimme a break.
--

--
Jerry Marco University of Virginia, Dept. of Computer Science
UUCP: ..cbosgd!uvacs!jlm or
..decvax!mcnc!ncsu!uvacs!jlm
CSNET: jlm@virginia

[Dick Karpinski]

In article <2...@uvacs.UUCP> j...@uvacs.UUCP (Jerry Marco) writes:
>> but because space is gonna make us all stinking rich.

>Yeah. And nuclear power will be so cheap to produce we won't be billed

>...

>their equipment their financial worries will be over. Gimme a break.

But, really, middle-class folks in this country ALREADY have powers
well beyond those granted to kings and emperors of yesteryear! Could
YOU fly to Hawaii tomorrow and fly back the next day, if you happened
to want to do that? I could.

Dick
--

Dick Karpinski Manager of Unix Services, UCSF Computer Center
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!cca.ucsf!dick (415) 476-4529 (12-7)
BITNET: dick@ucsfcca Compuserve: 70215,1277 Telemail: RKarpinski
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