Malthusian Theory and Travel Beyond Earth Orbit

John Ordover wrote in message
om...

You're misunderstanding Malthusian theory. First, it doesn't
predict extinction - it only predicts a signifacnt drop in the
population over time.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/malthus.html

"Malthus concluded that unless family size was regulated,
man's misery of famine would become globally epidemic
and eventually consume Man."

http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/malthus/malthus.19.html

"The finest minds seem to be formed rather by efforts at
original thinking, by endeavours to form new combinations,
and to discover new truths, than by passively receiving the
impressions of other men's ideas. Could we suppose the
period arrived, when there was not further hope of future
discoveries, and the only employment of mind was to
acquire pre-existing knowledge, without any efforts to form
new and original combinations, though the mass of human
knowledge were a thousand times greater than it is at present,
yet it is evident that one of the noblest stimulants to mental
exertion would have ceased; the finest feature of intellect
would be lost; everything allied to genius would be at an end;
and it appears to be impossible, that, under such
circumstances, any individuals could possess the same
intellectual energies as were possessed by a Locke, a Newton,
or a Shakespeare, or even by a Socrates, a Plato, an Aristotle
or a Homer." (Thomas Malthus)

--
John Thomas Maxson, Retired Engineer (Aerospace)
Author, The Betrayal of Mission 51-L (www.mission51l.com)