ORIGINAL: BBfanboy
No the selection will be very un-natural. When food and water shortages start the have-nots will attack the haves and slaughter will commence on both sides and the smart/worthy/innocent will not be spared. It would be natural if we fought with fists, but the weapons we have will make the situation so bad that all trade may stop. Back to primitive existence after all we have built is destroyed.ORIGINAL: geofflambert
When I was born there were 3 billion people here. Now there's nearly 8. This planet cannot sustain that. Natural selection will be kicking in very soon.
That sounds bleak, but unless bold action is taken to ensure everyone gets a piece of the pie and population declines from deliberate birth controls, we will revert to survival of the most vicious.
That nihilistic approach belies or subsumes human progress. Way too bleak.
Through scientific discovery, automation and application of learned principles, we are capable of growing more than enough food for 8 billion people. Rate of growth of populations in most advanced countries are slowing significantly over the last two decades. Some are actually declining (Japan) or will be declining ex-immigration (Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asian republics) within the next decade or so. Extreme poverty has been globally cut by two-thirds in the last 30 years. Life expectancy globally has continued to rise. Widespread vaccination campaigns have wiped out smallpox and are precariously close to eradicating polio globally. Most other diseases for which vaccines exist have significantly reduced their grip on the world's people. Women are educated and are leaders in more fortune 500 companies than ever before. There are fewer state-on-state wars and fewer people dying (on a per capita basis) from wars than at almost any other time in history.
Compared to our ancestors, we live in a gilded age full of wonders. We're doing just fine for ourselves. I'm optimistic that human progress will continue and the lives of our grandchildren and great grandchildren will be commensurately better.