Are you familiar with the writings of Malthus? Predictions of humanity’s growth-fueled demise are not new.
> is there any future in which the humans race does not choke itself with its own overgrowth?
There are three primary ideas that give me hope in the future of humanity.
The first is space settlement, especially on orbital colonies. The books The High Frontier and Mining the Sky are great introductions to this concept. And after a long “space winter”, it’s gaining steam.
The second is the humble concept of recycling. I believe technological progress will allow us to recycle the vast majority of materials that we use to build our civilization. Current directions in this field are enzymatic decomposition and AI-enabled visual separation of matter.
Finally, I have hope in the future of humanity based on the fact that those with higher quality of life and education tend to have fewer children.
These things together paint a picture of a next century with fewer total humans on earth living with much higher life quality and efficiency, with an expanding frontier of orbital colonies of adventurers. This frontier will in turn become a comfortable civilization that can sustain trillions, before we even discuss the possibility of life outside our solar system.
Lofty? Yes. But look at how far we have come and note that indications for high QOL and high tech are accelerating, not slowing down. There will be challenge after challenge, but we will get to a fundamentally brighter future with different problems, make no mistake.
That is, we will get there if we have engaged citizens of democracies all over the world who believe in and act on their power. Political will is the bottleneck.
