We are going to hit the mark anytime soon. With all the overcrowding occurring in the world (jam-packed trains (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STNWc7Rlpfk&feature=player_embedded) for example :P) and most of the natural resources depleting very fast, is the world prepared to face the consequences of having that many people?

If history and nature are anything to go by then no.
- As one species over populates its foods run low so they starve and reduce back to fewer beings.
- Humans always resort to wars. The world is in debt, Russia pushes borders out, The EU could go belly up, with Germany it's current main financial contributor floating the rest of the EU up. The current "War" in the desert ridden oil filled asian lands. White men wanting to throw out the "islamic extremists" From england.
Any stupid little thing could easily push one culture into bloodshed.

You'll never know when the 7 million people are going to decrease in the future by many reasons... It's not really going to stay. Every 60 seconds, someone dies in this world.... As in one of my friend who commited suicide... ;_;

You'll never know when the 7 million people are going to decrease in the future by many reasons... It's not really going to stay. Every 60 seconds, someone dies in this world.... As in one of my friend who commited suicide... ;_;

Mod Spoilered
Oh, great thinking! We need more people to commit suicide. Tell all your friends to. That is such a great idea animefans, why didn't I think of that?

Mod Spoilered:I'm with Trolllash on with one. We don't need your depressing emo comments of real life on the internet.
This thread makes me think how people would be selected for space colonies :huh:

Space colonies? Eh? :blink:

We are going to hit the mark anytime soon. With all the overcrowding occurring in the world (jam-packed trains (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STNWc7Rlpfk&feature=player_embedded) for example :P) and most of the natural resources depleting very fast, is the world prepared to face the consequences of having that many people?

looking at the world right now will answer your question to that
as for the trainpushers, that's just because asian cultures hate being late and so stuffing as many people as possible means more people on trains == more people getting places == more efficient throughput of people going places? xD ok that's a stretch

Whiplash and Hantony: The point was that people aren't only being born - they're also dying. No need to be an ass about it. Take your trolling to other forums. You don't own this place.


Back on topic...

Some people might think it's a big deal, but people live and die, that's all there is to it. In the end as long as people feel that it was worth living that's all it matters.

I think Zero has a good attitude about it. I mean, in the end, as long as there are enough resources for everyone to get by, we probably don't need to worry too much about whether there are "too many" people.

On the other hand, it's hard to say that the world population is something we shouldn't try to address in some manner. More people will, by extension, use more fossil fuels (and other finite resources). I would never advocate people be killed off, but I think birth control should at least be promoted more, since it seems to me the most humane way of dealing with, what is ultimately likely to become, a larger and larger problem in the future.

I do understand that in poorer countries lacking good social programs, children are often seen as retirement insurance. Maybe the rich countries can help subsidize birth control for other countries, on the condition that some of those funds are used to help set up a solid welfare retirement program for those too old to work, including better tax-collection methods, and eliminating corruption amongst those who collect, manage, and redistribute those taxes. That way, it can solve one of the primary motivations for having more children, while at the same time, actively encouraging people to have fewer.

Of course, some places see it differently. Various people in shrinking countries, especially Japan, speak of a "low birth rate problem", because fewer future workers will make it difficult to support retirees. But I think this is because those people put aside the more obvious (and controversial) solution of raising the retirement age. People are living longer and the tax revenue can't support ever-increasing durations of retirement; it's simply unsustainable, and everyone knows it but politician's hands are tied to do something about it, because even if the politicians try to raise it, they know they'll get voted out and replaced by other politicians who'll lower the retirement age right back down again. So it's a tricky political issue. A means test might be useful too, because if you're sitting on 2 million, do you really need to draw from social security? O_O

So yeah, lots of difficult decisions we're facing, but hopefully humanity will figure out a way to solve them.


Those are my opinions anyway.

We've got plenty of space left on Earth. And don't worry. When the world is really overpopulated, all the poor countries will die out first. ~___~

Mod Spoilered: Off-TopicDid two posts on suicide/enforced death just get censored? A suggestion hinted at from futurama to BNW, shit I was reading about that when I was 9-10. If we can't have an open discussion why bother having one at all.

In one of the countries in Africa, Coca Cola or Pepsi once did a promotional campaign related to sex. They were giving for free a condom in each can they were selling. This was promoting a safe sex to lower the number of illness transfers and to lower the number of undesirables births.

China has a law related to how many children a couple is allowed to have. I think this is a good option that probably can be applied in the future in other countries. The danger I see of it is that can increase abortions if the law will have a big punishment.

Also, I remember years ago I read about a scientist that proposed publicly how to exterminate a percent of human population ("for good causes")_. He was talking about bio-terrorism if I am not wrong. I tried to search about it, but I still have not found it.

. . .in the end, as long as there are enough resources for everyone to get by, we probably don't need to worry too much about whether there are "too many" people.

Much agreed. This statement also addresses the standard of living in so many places. I'm not saying that people have to reassess the size of their house or cars or food, etc. but when you think about the culture of the "successful" it just seems quite a bit overdone.

I just hope we don't all resort to massacres and abortions if governments or extremists are so concerned about this topic.

If we can't have an open discussion why bother having one at all.
Because it wasn't a discussion, those were insults/flamebaits. As long as people can discuss stuff without making it personal, then there won't be a problem. I'm really hoping we can take this forum in a new and positive direction, but that means some things will have to happen differently than they did before.


I just hope we don't all resort to massacres and abortions if governments or extremists are so concerned about this topic.
Yeah, that's my fear too. The green revolution (which is ongoing) is dependent upon petroleum, so once we're past peak oil, things could potentially get very difficult, very quickly, for everyone except the very rich. Hence why I'd prefer we encourage people to simply have fewer kids now, rather than humanity face a future where we can't grow enough food for everyone, leading to killing of people and fetuses.

Mod Spoilered: Off-Topic
Because it wasn't a discussion, those were insults/flamebaits. As long as people can discuss stuff without making it personal, then there won't be a problem. I'm really hoping we can take this forum in a new and positive direction, but that means some things will have to happen differently than they did before.


Yeah, that's my fear too. The green revolution (which is ongoing) is dependent upon petroleum, so once we're past peak oil, things could potentially get very difficult, very quickly, for everyone except the very rich. Hence why I'd prefer we encourage people to simply have fewer kids now, rather than humanity face a future where we can't grow enough food for everyone, leading to killing of people and fetuses.

Anyway, since this is a politically charged subject, I probably won't post in this thread again. I'm glad it hasn't devolved into a flame war, but I won't push my luck.



2 Posts were removed, replaced with sarcastic sounding remarks, and including namecalling. All this by the Administrative community, I don't know what that is, but it definetly isnt a "new and positive direction".

Not only that but a rather interesting subtopic of the conversation was either censored, or smugly hinted at due to another member's regrettable experience with it. I'm not saying the 2 posters might not have said something inapropiate, but I'll never know and it has indeed affected the conversation at hand.

Put simply... that freaking blows.

2 Posts were removed, replaced with sarcastic sounding remarks, and including namecalling. All this by the Administrative community, I don't know what that is, but it definetly isnt a "new and positive direction".
Hopefully future rebukes won't be worded in a way that could be construed as name-calling.


Not only that but a rather interesting subtopic of the conversation was either censored, or smugly hinted at due to another member's regrettable experience with it. I'm not saying the 2 posters might not have said something inapropiate, but I'll never know and it has indeed affected the conversation at hand.
Censoring and post-editing is standard procedure on a multitude of forums. And the forum guidelines do say that we are to respect each other.


# Treat all members with respect. Any personal attacks on another person or their beliefs is not tolerated.
# Any arguments about personal matters between users will be deleted. Constructive arguments about subjects such as religion are fine, anything that digresses into personal attacks is not. Use a method of communication outside the forums.

I'm sure this will be frustrating for a lot of people at first, since change often is. But we can't keep continuing to do things the old way. =/


In any case, we're getting off-topic so maybe if you have further protests, you could PM the mod directly and discuss it?

I think this is interesting. The more people we have in the world... you think there will be more people who will be disagreeing with one another. If not... there just may be bigger groups of people who will disagree with each other. If yes, then WAR! kill some of your people... some of our people. But that were things get really interesting. People who come back from war want to create a family and a big one at that, because the war is over, and it's time to make a family. Not only that... if the history repeats, then the soldiers who faught abroad might have left some of him there... as in impregnated someone there.

Luis: All I did was spoiler their posts. The content remains untouched. Why did I spoiler(censor) them? Their intent wasn't to explore subtopics: They took animefans12's post as trollbait, so they were trolling. If troll or trollbait is part of your everyday vocabulary, there are other forums that would welcome you.


Much agreed. This statement also addresses the standard of living in so many places. I'm not saying that people have to reassess the size of their house or cars or food, etc. but when you think about the culture of the "successful" it just seems quite a bit overdone.

This is true. It was said that Raman Maharshi became enlightened in his early 20's, and he just sat under a bridge in utter bliss for the rest of his life. People came and fed him food. He taught those who wanted to learn from him. And that was his life.

Kind of an extreme example, but the point is, people don't need alot of "stuff" to be happy - people try to fill themselves with more stuff than they need because they don't know what ultimately makes them happy.

Kind of an extreme example, but the point is, people don't need alot of "stuff" to be happy - people try to fill themselves with more stuff than they need because they don't know what ultimately makes them happy.
Yeah, I think it's useful for each person to find one thing and try to become as good at it as they're able. Drawing, pottery, cooking, or other hobby that they can excel in and enjoy learning.

Just becoming good at one thing you enjoy spending a lot of time on can often be the most gratifying use of one's time. There is, of course, the danger of comparing oneself to others, like "ooh, that person is so much better at it than me". But as long as people just focus on their own personal goals and not worry about others, then they can find themselves really happy doing that thing they chose.

To be honest though, I don't do this, but if I took my own advice, I think I'd probably be a lot less stressed. I'm going to try to start on doing something this year, once I figure out what to choose.

You could also say mother nature deals with such a potential problem anyway. Illness and desease become much harder to contain where population is high. Think back to when swine flu popped up, the whole world seemed to go crazy scared looking for medicine and vacceens.

Mod Spoilered: Off-Topic
2 Posts were removed, replaced with sarcastic sounding remarks, and including namecalling. All this by the Administrative community, I don't know what that is, but it definetly isnt a "new and positive direction".

Not only that but a rather interesting subtopic of the conversation was either censored, or smugly hinted at due to another member's regrettable experience with it. I'm not saying the 2 posters might not have said something inapropiate, but I'll never know and it has indeed affected the conversation at hand.

Put simply... that freaking blows.
lmao, stop being such a dumbass, Luis. =P
The mods left Whiplash's and Hantony's comments COMPLETELY INTACT, and just put them into spoilers. Han and Whip were insulting animefans - mods put them into spoilers. Nothing was really censored at all, see? Don't worry though; we know English isn't your native tongue, and so we forgive you. Heheheheheh~

Edit: Oops, looks like other people said it before me. I was still looking at the first page, lol. Whatever, though. Haven't had a chance to poke fun at Luis in awhile anyway. <3
And Solphar:
http://www.dreamstime.com/white-knight-amongst-black-chess-pieces-thumb7971457.jpg
Heheh. ;P

You could also say mother nature deals with such a potential problem anyway. Illness and desease become much harder to contain where population is high. Think back to when swine flu popped up, the whole world seemed to go crazy scared looking for medicine and vacceens.
Yeah. I think a lot of panics like that result because scientists help whip the media into a frenzy. And also some people still think about the 1918 pandemic, and worry about a repeat. So I suppose concerns about new flu strains aren't entirely unwarranted. Although it was silly how so many pigs were slaughtered, just because it was called the swine flu. There wasn't a mass-slaughter of Spaniards during the Spanish flu of 1918.

Anyway, perhaps we should try to keep this thread free of anymore personal attacks if we can... HopelessComposer ^_^ I think the administration has the situation under control. =)

Mod Spoilered: Off-Topic
Anyway, perhaps we should try to keep this thread free of anymore personal attacks if we can... HopelessComposer I think the administration has the situation under control. =)
Hahahahaah, did you get the joke? I was just kidding, lol. =D

Mod Spoilered: Off-Topic
Hahahahaah, did you get the joke? I was just kidding, lol. =D
Yep, I know you were just joking with Luis. I'm just trying to head-off any problems before they become full-blown arguments. And even though you two might now each other well, and you're probably used to joking with each other in that manner, I'm also trying to encourage everyone to set a good example, for new people, and for each other. I'm trying to help turn this place into an atmosphere that encourages mutual courtesy. I know it ain't going to happen in a week or even a month... People will slip up into their old ways, but I'm going to try to be around as much as I can in order to prevent that.

Some will probably see me as too serious, or out to wreck their fun, but I'm not. I'm just trying to help keep this forum from returning to being a place where ribbing and razzing is done in ways that can be seen as insulting. That kinda stuff too often lead to fights in the past. There are still non-public areas of the forum, like PMs, and offsite areas like Facebook, where people can do that kinda stuff if they really want to.

Anyway, I'm really hoping that we can refocus on the thread and not get sidetracked by this stuff, if that's okay with you. =)

Mod Spoilered: Off-Topiclol, I wasn't referring to the joke about Luis. I was talking about the picture. XD
But yes, let's get this thread back on track.
Nice of you to donate, by the way. =D

lol, I wasn't referring to the joke about Luis.
But yes, let's get this thread back on track.
Nice of you to donate, by the way. =D
Yeah, I'm trying to set the example. Hoping other people will do it too. =)


Anyway, on topic: When we consider the implications of 7 billion people, we also have to think about the implications of raising everyone's standard of living at the same time. That in itself is likely to be resource intensive, but if governments can more strongly encourage recycling, we can at least mitigate the build-up of solid waste landfills.

When we consider the implications of 7 billion people, we also have to think about the implications of raising everyone's standard of living at the same time. That in itself is likely to be resource intensive, but if governments can more strongly encourage recycling, we can at least mitigate the build-up of solid waste landfills.

One question to think about: Why are people having so many kids?

Like you said, in poor countries people have kids as an investment for old-age support.
But what about people living in America who are having kids by the litter?

I for one, don't plan to have kids. I don't mind donating seed but, even then, I'd be picky about who the receiver is and what her intentions are.

I remember in our Labour Economics class of about 150 students (80% Canadian, 20% International) we took a poll for how many kids we want. The result was something like:
0 ~ 3%
1-2 ~ 40%
3-4 ~ 45%
5+ ~ 12%

Now these were mainly 19-23 years olds. And I was thinking Man, I hope they're not gonna have kids just to fill the subtle sense of emptiness in their lives. I mean, having kids can be a nice fantasy, but still... is that what they, really want?

^I remember learning in my psych class a few back that most pregnancies under 20 years or so were girls with sub-average IQs (around 85 or so). I also learned that native Africans have the lowest IQ in the world by far (around 65-70 points). I'm sure this accounts for Africa's huge AIDs/too-many-kids/poverty problem. We also learned that basically any problem you could think of in society (crime and stuff) were basically caused by stupid people, with IQs of around 85 or so. Smart enough to know they want something more, too stupid to be able to go about getting it in a civilized way.

On a related note, the average IQ for an African-American is 85, compared to the average White American at around 100 or so. Coincidentally, (iirc!) African-Americans make up 80% of the prison population, while they make up only around 20% of the general population.

It sounds weird, but stupidity really is the root cause of almost all problems, I think. Hahah. =D
As a double-aside, East Asians have the highest average IQ in the world, at around 106. Does that solve the reason behind Japan's declining birthrate too, I wonder? XD

=/

I think intelligence is heavily influenced by educational opportunities and the quality of the teachers and curriculum. Where educational infrastructure is strong, intelligence will naturally blossom. Personally, I don't subscribe to the race-based intelligence conjecture. In fact, I feel that what you're saying is borderline, if not outright, racism. Painting with a broad brush can be hazardous.


Anyway, I think that education is also one of the biggest influences on how many kids people have. If children are taught by their parents, or others, that having a lot of kids is a good thing, then the child will naturally take that view with them into adulthood. But it's not too late. Even adults can be educated. Informing people about birth-control and showing how it's safe and effective can go a long ways towards reducing unnecessarily large families, in my opinion.

As Zero observed, a large portion of people in industrialized countries are being taught that having many children is desirable, so I see that as something governments and educators should work towards reversing. When you think about it, don't the positives outweigh the negatives? If you have fewer kids, you won't have to spend as much money on them, you'll have more time for your own hobbies, and you'll be causing less pollution in the long-run by using fewer natural resources.

I think intelligence is heavily influenced by educational opportunities and the quality of the teachers and curriculum. Where educational infrastructure is strong, intelligence will naturally blossom. Personally, I don't subscribe to the race-based intelligence conjecture. In fact, I feel that what you're saying is borderline, if not outright, racism. Painting with a broad brush can be hazardous.
It's not racism, it's scientific fact. I'm sorry not everyone is exactly the same on Earth, like they are in magical fairy world. The races are all different; thinking the differences in race would just happen to be skin-deep is naive, silly, and borderline stupid. Black people are also more likely to be lactose intolerant than whites, and do better in hotter, more sunshiny environments. They can also run longer (to catch running gazelle, lol. Why do you think they dominate at sports?) White people are better at drinking milk, and are better at living in low-light environments. Coincidentally, Europe isn't nearly as hot as Africa. Our squinty-eyed Asian friends? (Not all Asians, mind you, just the ones with more slanted eyes) - they're mostly from mountainous countries; their eyes are squinted to block the ridiculous amount of sunlight reflecting off the snow in their natural habitats - they're basically wearing sunglasses all day long! They're also paler, to help soak up as much sun as possible in their low-light environments. Asians in hotter, sunnier countries are (surprise!) darker skinned, with eyes basically the same exact thing as a caucasian's.

Evolution, Solphar! Everyone is different, and that's pretty awesome in my opinion!
And we're getting off-topic again. Sorry mods. = \

Yeah, I won't deny that DNA has an effect, because DNA shapes nearly every cell in our bodies, except the ones which have been altered/damaged by external forces. That said, I still think upbringing is the largest factor. If a child is adopted into a home that encourages academic studiousness, I think that child will be much better off than a child of the same race put into a home where the parents don't care about how knowledgeable their child is.

I agree with you that everyone is different, but I still think everyone is capable of reaching their personal best when located within the right circumstances. Anyways, I think we ought to keep further mention of race out of the discussion, since it will likely lead to the thread being locked.

Oh, just as I was about to post something in this thread, I realize how complicated this thread has become. :heh: But all these information is good anyway, food for my thoughts.

Let's steer this thread to another direction. Next question,

With the increase in human population, will the talent pool (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0EdIkM81uM) in this world grow deeper? Will technology advance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKPVQal851U) at an greater rate with more people around?

I don't think population increase will have anything to do with 'talent pools'. Looking at music, it is the evolution of music that accounts for the increasing technical demands on the musician. Simple example of the Chopin etudes which revolutionised piano technique. These days they are just regarded as very difficult yet very beautiful pieces of music. In Chopin's day, pianists were like hang on this isn't Bach/Mozart, what's going on here? That video of the guy playing piano with his feet, nothing more than your standard adaptation if you think about it on an evolutionary level. He wanted to play piano, so developed that level of dexterity in his feet. Not really breaking any frontiers there....

Don't get me started on technology. That invisibility thing is pointless, yeah would be fun but really?

Don't get me started on technology. That invisibility thing is pointless, yeah would be fun but really?
Well, yeah. THAT invisibility thing is pointless and stupid, since all he's doing is projecting images onto white objects, which anyone at home with a projector can do. Which has no practical use at all.
The first country that produces actual invisible soldiers is going to own the planet, though...

It's not about quantity, it's about quality. Talent pool and technology advances will only happen if people work hard/research/try new things. If we had Eleventy trillion lazy people, everything would come to a standstill...

It's not about quantity, it's about quality. Talent pool and technology advances will only happen if people work hard/research/try new things. If we had Eleventy trillion lazy people, everything would come to a standstill...
Yeah, but it would make more sense if a certain percentage of the population was hardworking, regardless of population size. Because of this, we should obviously have more smart/hardworking people on the planet than ever before.

Literacy rates for each country is going up, so theres definitely going to a bright future. Though I must say, I'm content with the technology we have now. More might not mean it's necessarily good. I'm looking forward to the new medical technology that'll come in the future ^^

Unless a catastrophic natural effect break the human's cycle. xP


I believe we are quite primitive still, and we are just part of the early era of the technology. Too sad we won't be able to see how much we will evolve in 200 years. :(

We're still fine with the technology we have now and even if the population is growing, it really isn't going to change much, like what Nyu001 said. The ones that are usually making the technologies are the scientists.

More scientist = Whoo~ -.-