Developments

Constant development is the law of life,
and a man who always tries to maintain his
dogmas in order to appear consistent
drives himself into a false position.
Mohandas Gandhi

No substantative work has been done in this area, as yet. However, it is highly recommended that you view the video lecture by Dr. Albert Bartlett, entitled 'Arithmetic, Population and Energy'. While Dr. Bartlett cites the following quote at the end of his lecture, the implications are well worth considering from the start:

 Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
Aldous Huxley

As indicated, the scope of the remit of this section hopes to address some of the current developments, which may affect the future evolution of human society in the next few generations. In this context, one of the biggest present-day developments, when measured as a relative change, is the growth in the world's population. While this effect has many social implications, it is probably true to say that this growth directly reflects and depends on the development of technology, especially the explosive growth in the 20^th century.

At this point, it might be suggested that there are a number of potential issues that might determine whether the prediction, in the graph above, comes true or not. In this context, we might table the following question:

What is the probability that the issue of population will be addressed rationally?

First, it might have to be accepted that virtually all ecological problems can be traced back to the demands of a growing population, which then not only underpin the economics of supply and demand, but sometimes overwhelm any other wider considerations. Second, the system of supply and demand may now have transcended the control of any single political system, resulting in only ineffective compromise, especially in respect to any long-term shared ecological responsibility. Third, there is the thorny issue as to whether all fundamental human rights can be extended to every one of the planet's 6.7 billion inhabitants, at least, in terms of a right to procreate.

So what potential solutions to population control might be considered?

Of course, at this point, some might try to refute that population growth has already become a problem in terms of a sustainable ecology or prefer to run with the assumption that future developments will always offer up a solution. However, it is clear that others will contest the reality of such a position, not only in terms of the technical realities, but possibly in terms of any higher goals we might wish to attribute to human existence. Finally, there is the very real prospect that no solution will be actively sought, leaving only nature's bottom-line solution to the problem of demand exceeding supply.

So are there any other alternative approaches?

At this point, political correctness can often suppress public discussion of any approach that appears to conflict with the growing demand for human rights; although this understandable position does not necessary make the problem go away. The problem with any discussion of selective control of the population, when the term genetics is introduced, is the fear that some may also have a secret eugenic agenda. While this danger is understandable from a historic perspective and not out of the question in a future context, it does not necessarily negate the rationale when the issues are discussed in a moral framework. However, at this early stage, the wider implication of this future discussion will simply be tabled in the form of a quote by Charles Darwin:

With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilized men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thousands, who from a weak constitution would formerly have succumbed to smallpox. Thus the weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but excepting in the case of man himself, hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.

Of course, the implication of any continued population growth has also to be rationalised in terms of resources. While any human society can make many calls on resources, we might initially consider the issue of food production and housing, which underpin any basic quality of life. At this point, we may also need to reflect on the axiom 'just four meals away from anarchy' in order to determine how much scope for a rational solution to the population problem may actually exist in the face of potential anarchy.