[ExI] Fuel for social disruption was Re: riots again

[Keith Henson]

Wars, riots and related social disruption are the outcome of
population growth in the face of limits.  Simple thought experiment:
no population, no wars and no riots.

This isn't new.  Humans population growth has filled the world to
capacity for a long time.

In the "natural" state, human populations fluctuate, building up in
good times and falling when conditions (such as weather) reduced the
ability of the ecosystem to feed the existing population.  A lot
follows from the evolved responses to this reality.  (For example, the
psychological mechanisms behind religions.)

In the last 10,000 years or so, humans have figured out how to modify
the ecosystem to feed a very large multiple of the numbers of humans
who could live on the same area as hunter-gatherers.  Finally, for
reasons that are not entirely clear, humans have reduced population
growth in some parts of the world to near zero.

Understanding the model helps sort out the proximate causes (a silly
video) from the ultimate cause, economic growth not keeping up with
population growth.

Keith