Humanity is embarking on a remarkable milestone. There will soon be 7 billion of us roaming this wonderful gas covered rock as it hurdles through space.
Amazing!
Now, some of you may find this worrisome, but don’t. Instead, consider the follow assuagements to a few common fears.
Overpopulated? Nawww.
The carrying capacity of a tech enhanced earth might very well be limitless. So far we’ve only colonized the surface of our dear planet. There’s still the oceans to populate (both under the sea and afloat) as well as the untapped real estate that spans miles beneath our feet.
Running out of food? Hardly.
Apart from a few blips, earth’s per capita food production has been consistently holding. Now, if we could just not waste 1/3 of all the food we make, we’d be laughing.
But even this waste won’t matter within a decade or more. With the advent of 3D printers and dramatic breakthroughs in affordable green energy, we’re likely to soon develop automated solutions that generate limitless food with little intervention, anywhere the sun shines.
Going to kill ourselves off? Probably not.
The past decade has brought an unprecedented level of interconnectedness to our world, and this is set to increase exponentially over the decade to come. Social media is helping expose our common humanity, teaching us how the vast majority of people are pretty much the same as us and that we really can co-exist without slaughtering each other.
And the more we come together, the more power the people will have. Global solidarity will be enough to counterbalance the world’s military industrial complex, effectively dismantling institutionalized warfare and freeing up trillions of dollars which, ideally, will be used for productive and constructive ends.
The more the merrier!
Don’t fret about our swelling global family, and try not to let irrational fear cloud your judgement. There is still plenty of room for us to grow, meaning the best is yet to come.
