That reminded me of a novel I read once, oh say 40 years ago, it was 'Stand On Zanzibar'. There was a statistic that was the premise of the book's title. It was that by 2010 the world population would be doubled to 7 billion souls. It forecasted a very crowded earth short of resources and big on Governments and control.
Well the population prediction was right on the money. In 2010 we can expect to have about 7,000,000,000 neighbors. It does boggle the "Love thy Neighbor..." concept a bit don't it.
Well the premise was that if all of the people of the world stood in one place shoulder to shoulder that would cover an area equal to the square footage contained on the island of Zanzibar.
Zanzibar is just off of the "arm pit" of Eastern Africa near the border of Kenya and Tanzania.
Yes we looked like ants on Tuesday from space. It was one of our great historical events, but from a far enough perspective we are left resembling bacteria in a petri dish. Sobering is it not.
4 comments:
I recall reading on some blog that there was no such thing as over population..that as long as each human had one square foot things would be fine. Dunno, that sounds damned uncomfortable...
As a Geographer I would have to say than any "environment" has a carrying capacity. The capacity to carry biological life is a zero sum game. Adding humans subtracts from the other organism. Technology can up the capacity by adding energy, but it still screws the balance.
Still a 'Matrix' type enviroment could be nearly imposssible to fill up.
And, if memory serves, at the end of the novel the hypothetical crowd on Zanzibar was ankle-deep in th surf.
I also seem to recall reading that the author John Brunner died in poverty. I liked his stuff.
Somewhere in this house is a copy of the book. When (if) I find it I think I'll give it another reading. The things I remember are the 'Muckers', those guys who go bizerk and kill everybody in sight, and the 'anarchist' who acting alone or in small groups were performing random acts of destruction. The sound kind of familiar don't they?
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