From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Thu Apr 10 2003 - 19:57:40 MDT
Charles writes
> > What is germane to this discussion is which kind of life is more of
> > an ESS (evolutionarily stable strategy). If a nation or a tribe or
> > just a group of people is to have a group identity that lasts longer
> > than a decade or two, or that outlasts the individual life times of
> > its members, then I do not believe that what you call the "northern"
> > or I'd call the more modern structures are ESS's. That is one reason
> > why poorer peoples from around the world are demographically replacing
> > more "modern" ones.
>
> Possibly. But throughout history areas with dense populations have not
> replaced, but depended on immigration. And areas with low density
> population have been net exporters of population. This holds with many
> different social systems, cultures, limits to sanitation, etc.
That's extremely interesting. So a corollary would be that urban
populations have a lower birth rate than rural populations. Do
you know if this is indeed quite general? Happen to know of any
references?
> So there may be something more basic going on.
It brings to mind the old theories about crowding (and group
selection, which is an incorrect application of group selection
by the way).
Lee
> It would be interesting to know the distribution of
> China's population replacement ratios. But from
> what I've heard [newspaper factoids] it's again
> the country population that is growing and the city
> population that is declining.)
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