Live data from Hacker News

Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans

maartenboudry.be

11–20 of 136 posts

Re: Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans

#12
post #7

I had a long conversation with an anthropologist so studied the emergence of agriculture, who argued that it wasn't invented but instead adopted by necessity. He pointed out the huge host of health problems that came with agriculture: hard labor; poor quality food; diseases from living densely. Life expectancy dropped from the adoption of agriculture until well into the industrial revolution, with the adoption of pub…

So what were the necessities that prompted the adoption of agriculture?

10 half-starving farmers could beat 1 fat hunter gatherer in a fight.

Re: Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans

#13
post #5

"The more people there are, the more solutions to problems will be found." Has not been true so far, I wonder at what population amount, will this start working ?

When I see people thinking about voting for someone like Donald Trump I know the argument that more people = better solutions is complete bullshit. Even if we technically have more solutions, having more dumb people who are able to negate all the benefits is a far worse situation to be in.

Re: Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans

#14
See:

Selfish reasons to want more humans (rootsofprogress.org)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39497686

119 points by pr337h4m 6 hours ago | flag | hide | past | favorite | 215 comments

this is yet another variation on the same arguments from yet another roots of progress writer:

    Published first in Quillette. Many thanks to all my Roots of Progress fellows for their inspiration and feedback, in particular ...

Re: Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans

#15
post #2

Ok I have to ask but why is HN flooded with pseudo scientific climate change/ population control far right bullshit today?

You clearly didn’t even look at the article, because it’s not at all about climate change

Yeah, maybe not all of the article but it still is. Pro life ass propaganda without scientific merit.

Re: Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans

#16
post #4

The article is heavy on criticism of population decline and light on an argument of why it is so bad. As a parent in the USA I also don’t buy the argument that it is all education and birth control driving these changes. Many of my acquaintances simply cannot afford the costs of multiple children. And for others climate anxiety makes them question the future.

[dead]

Re: Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans

#17
When the article starts with "my scientific hero ... and why I think I am smarter than them" I'm having a really hard time following the rest of your argument, especially if there is little to no evidence, data or, substance to back whatever youre saying.

Re: Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans

#18
This article is brainless and attempts to make no argument other than "The more people there are, the more solutions to problems will be found" which hasn't happened yet despite massive population growth over the last 75 years. This kind of low quality content seems pervasive here lately. I can only presume it's the result of a generally lower quality of participant here lately.

Re: Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans

#19
post #5

"The more people there are, the more solutions to problems will be found." Has not been true so far, I wonder at what population amount, will this start working ?

Of course its true - we wouldn't have gotten to the moon, or been able to build world-encompassing highway and Internet systems, without the critical mass of people who built our academic and industrial institutions.

To see the nature of your fallacy, just look out at your universities and wonder how they will operate, as effectively as they have so far, with half the staff. And then, that staff halves again in 10 years.

Doing this, honestly, do you still have faith that the deleterious effect of humanity upon itself will be replenished with new perspectives, new generations, new ideas?

We humans are instinctively cannibals. We don't eat each other literally any more, but spiritually and culturally. The moment there is less of that human culture to consume, the closer we get to actually reverting to the physical manifestation of it ..

Re: Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans

#20
post #4

The article is heavy on criticism of population decline and light on an argument of why it is so bad. As a parent in the USA I also don’t buy the argument that it is all education and birth control driving these changes. Many of my acquaintances simply cannot afford the costs of multiple children. And for others climate anxiety makes them question the future.

The climate change anxiety is super real just most politicians are too old and out of touch to understand it.

If we don't turn tide on our fight against climate change dramatically and like, yesterday, there is absolutely no chance my kids will be thinking about having kids. The world will just be a wreck by that point.

Want to fix the birth rate? Make people economically and physically more secure.

Post reply on HN