[extropy-chat] ex-tropical

[Robert J. Bradbury]

On Mon, 1 Mar 2004, Adrian Tymes wrote:

> Although, as has been pointed out, a more practical
> way to handle overpopulation would be to increase the
> Earth's carrying capacity for humans through better
> medicine, better agrotech, and so forth - just like
> the way humanity moved from millions to billions.

I have a paper on my desk which follows exactly that approach [1].
While it is somewhat old, it is done by a scientist at
IIASA in Austria so I would expect the quality to be high.

It suggests that the carrying capacity for the Earth is
in excess of 10^12 (1 trillion people).  A lot depends
on how much capital is available to build the cities
and provide the energy resources required.  It doesn't
directly cite the use of nanotechnology or biotechnology
however some fairly advanced engineering technologies
are required to satisfy some of the parameters of the
discussion.

Robert

1. Marchetti, C., "10^12: A Check on the Earth-Carrying Capacity for Man",
   Energy Vol. 4 pp. 1107-1117 (1979).