On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Randy Kramer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Can you elaborate on that a little (that denying Malthusian theory implies > denying Darwinian evolution)? I'm glad you asked. I probably over-stated the strength of the connection. My apologies. True, Darwin was aware of Malthus's theory when he was formulating his theory, but the connection isn't completely solid. If "A" is Darwin's theory, and "B" is Malthus's theory, I don't think it is valid to say either A -> B (A implies B) or B -> A. In particular, the contrapositive, not B -> not A is probably a dubious assertion. OTOH, there is little doubt (in my mind at least) that both A and B are true :-) Clearly, B is true for all species with the *possible* exception of humans, and B is very likely true of humans as well. After all, humans are, first and foremost, members of the animal kingdom. So the only question in my mind is whether there are circumstances for which Malthus's theory does *not* apply to humans. The evidence is not at all reassuring. We are being warned in myriad ways that we humans are destroying the substrate of our existence. Jared Diamond's book "Collapse" is only the latest warning. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_(book) In short, it was wrong of me to assert that Darwin's theory necessarily entails Malthus's theory, but it would be equally wrong to blithely dismiss Malthus's theory. In fact, I am getting inklings that Don Beck's http://www.spiraldynamics.net/ "yellow" (post modern, still-to-be-evolved) civilization would necessarily have to be a post-Malthusian world. By that I mean a world that voluntarily restrains itself short of Malthusian limits. Less people, less per-capital income and less resource usage. The alternatives are the truly grim to contemplate. We are getting very close. Unifying all these thoughts is the notion that "rates of change" are somehow fundamental to our dilemma. Meadows paper speaks of such things. Here is another example: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/322/5901/532.pdf Apparently even students at MIT have trouble understanding "bathtub" (inflow and outflow) processes. Edward --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
