I doubt things scale this way. There are only so many opportunities to have impact. I don't think increasing the random generation of geniuses would have that much of an impact compared to an increase in quality of life for a smaller number of people.
Selfish reasons to want more humans
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Re: Selfish reasons to want more humans
#12> and there are basically no major examples of catastrophic resource shortages in the industrial age
is this really true? there were tons of supply-line problems during covid for example
I feel like to make this point you would have to define "catastrophic" and "resource" and "shortage" extremely narrowly.
Re: Selfish reasons to want more humans
#13The arguments in the linked article all seem rooted in a traditional Western weltanschauung.
This worldview is increasingly characterized (not without basis) as racist, sexist and fascist, mostly by critics whose personal positive contributions to human improvement are unclear.
I'm not driving this bus; I just seem to be going under it.
Maybe after the societal collapse the survivors can agree that the Critical Theory folks were mistaken?
Re: Selfish reasons to want more humans
#14The population growth rate needs to be controlled, even reduced, to reduce the pressure on natural resources and slow down the climate change. John Baez, mathematician at UCR, talks about this approach among a number of others, such as, reducing air travel for conferences.
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Re: Selfish reasons to want more humans
#15This is a good example of a very narrow human centric view that captures why its bad to try to maximize for particular made up metrics, such as human utility. It also a wonderfully hare brained view of technolocial innovation that disregards the dark sides, material input, or externalities at all.
Is this person an economist or something?
Re: Selfish reasons to want more humans
#16This could easily all be arguments for why you personally should want a more equitable world where we don’t have a Third world full of unhappiness and wasted tallent.
Why not both?
Re: Selfish reasons to want more humans
#17Would all this matter in an era of super-AI?
Re: Selfish reasons to want more humans
#18What do you suggest? Gas chambers?
Re: Selfish reasons to want more humans
#19Jason Crawford...
Re: Selfish reasons to want more humans
#20There has not been a single country so far whose GDP and overall wellness decreased with increase in population.