(cont'd from last Thursday's post)
Does it make sense that the world's population is better off now with 8 billion people than it was in 1970 with about 4 billion? Not according to Paul Ehrlich's confident prediction. Back then, he said it was already too late to stop hundreds of millions from starving, that humanity was doomed for sure.
But food has been available all this time, and is way more abundant now. New technology improved food production, made communication between people almost effortless, radically reduced the time and effort necessary to take care of human needs, and gave us near-miraculous health care.
Over all, humans gradually raised global standards of living by applying their problem-solving intelligence to new knowledge and discovery. The speed of that process far exceeded the rate of population growth.
In some cases, a person of genius in a society free enough to try his/her ideas had a positive effect on a phenomenal scale.
from Mind Matters
(cont'd tomorrow)
No comments:
Post a Comment