Re: overpopulation - more

Robin Hanson (hanson@econ.berkeley.edu)
Tue, 07 Jul 1998 10:40:48 -0700

Damien Broderick writes:
>I'd *still* like to see some informed calculations showing curves for
>different postulated changes in population growth given different versions
>of rejuvenated longevity, etc. The Hanson Runaway Upload Option is clearly
>so drastic and, um, fertile that almost any outcome will be plausible, but
>I assume that less discontinuous changes are more accessible to precise
>treatment (along the lines of Dan's claim that one exponential curve is
>much like another, something that sticks in my innumerate craw).

I disagree that upload copying is so drastic that any outcome is plausible. A virtue of the Malthusian analysis is exactly that as long as the physically possible population growth rates are high enough, the outcome is insensitive to just how high. The actual growth rate is determined by other things.

Robin Hanson
hanson@econ.berkeley.edu http://hanson.berkeley.edu/ RWJF Health Policy Scholar, Sch. of Public Health 510-643-1884 140 Warren Hall, UC Berkeley, CA 94720-7360 FAX: 510-643-2627