Thanks for linking the Asian/White academic performance study. Buried in the weeds is the usual suspect: widely varying cognitive rankings among the differentiated "Asians" who are then (conveniently) clumped together to support the study's assumptions and conclusions, if not its actual observations. Tiger moms take note.
"Nobody knows how to stop humanity from shrinking"
If you read about populations of wild animals in wild environments, you see graphs of S shaped growth curves. The animal is introduced into the environment. Its population grows exponentially for a while, hits a level at which it is resource constrained, levels off and then fluctuates.
Why should humans be different. The world population had been between a few hundred million and a billion for a very long time. In the 19th century modern industry was invented which opened a new environment followed by exponential growth. We are now entering the plateau phase. In the future it will fluctuate. That is OK. It was not going to stay in the exponential phase forever.
World population passed 2 billion about a century ago. It's about 8 billion now. The doubling period has been about 50 years (CAGR 1.4%). If it peaks at 10 billion and fluctuates thereafter why is that a catastrophe? A more or less steady state population forecloses some modes of growth and change, but our descendants will still be able to live their lives wisely and well.
Can anyone recommend a good recent, up-to-date book covering the ancient world leading up to Rome?
I’ve learned all this history through a variety of classes and books and podcasts over many years (and a ton of Razib’s great essays and interviews) but my college freshman son wants a single book he can read to get up to speed. He just read and loved Mike Duncan’s “The Storm Before the Storm” but my son is pretty fuzzy on everything before that. Obviously he could just get a textbook but those are so dry. Has anyone done a readable survey of this stuff recently? Amusingly for an 18-year-old in this day and age, he hates podcasts and even ebooks and loves reading physical paper hardbacks.
Ward Farnsworth's The Socratic Method is worth reading.. (For lovers of the English language, his Classical English series -- Classical English Rhetoric, Metaphor, Style, Argument -- is delicious.)
The world population has doubled within my lifetime, from approx 4 billion to approx 8 billion. For the most part, the population increase has been seen as a threat to the overall population. Now that it's peaked, it's seen a as threat that it's going down. Somebody needs to just make up their mind.
And, green energy isn't saving the planet. Arguably, it's worse than useless.
It's not the overall numbers that matter, it's the constituent population sizes. Sub-Saharan Africans are not the same as East Asians, even if their numbers are equal. Take a look at the projections and see just how Razib's 10 billon peak population is distributed. Big changes (some already well underway) are coming...
Thanks for linking the Asian/White academic performance study. Buried in the weeds is the usual suspect: widely varying cognitive rankings among the differentiated "Asians" who are then (conveniently) clumped together to support the study's assumptions and conclusions, if not its actual observations. Tiger moms take note.
I admire everybody who actually manages to read Kant, an amazing philosopher cursed with a writing style that is a real torture to the reader.
"Nobody knows how to stop humanity from shrinking"
If you read about populations of wild animals in wild environments, you see graphs of S shaped growth curves. The animal is introduced into the environment. Its population grows exponentially for a while, hits a level at which it is resource constrained, levels off and then fluctuates.
Why should humans be different. The world population had been between a few hundred million and a billion for a very long time. In the 19th century modern industry was invented which opened a new environment followed by exponential growth. We are now entering the plateau phase. In the future it will fluctuate. That is OK. It was not going to stay in the exponential phase forever.
World population passed 2 billion about a century ago. It's about 8 billion now. The doubling period has been about 50 years (CAGR 1.4%). If it peaks at 10 billion and fluctuates thereafter why is that a catastrophe? A more or less steady state population forecloses some modes of growth and change, but our descendants will still be able to live their lives wisely and well.
Good suggestions! I would add the Upanishads, the Dhammapada and, for the Chinese, the Tao Te Ching.
Can anyone recommend a good recent, up-to-date book covering the ancient world leading up to Rome?
I’ve learned all this history through a variety of classes and books and podcasts over many years (and a ton of Razib’s great essays and interviews) but my college freshman son wants a single book he can read to get up to speed. He just read and loved Mike Duncan’s “The Storm Before the Storm” but my son is pretty fuzzy on everything before that. Obviously he could just get a textbook but those are so dry. Has anyone done a readable survey of this stuff recently? Amusingly for an 18-year-old in this day and age, he hates podcasts and even ebooks and loves reading physical paper hardbacks.
In Europe? That would basically be the Greeks and the European prehistory Razib has written about extensively.
Ward Farnsworth's The Socratic Method is worth reading.. (For lovers of the English language, his Classical English series -- Classical English Rhetoric, Metaphor, Style, Argument -- is delicious.)
The world population has doubled within my lifetime, from approx 4 billion to approx 8 billion. For the most part, the population increase has been seen as a threat to the overall population. Now that it's peaked, it's seen a as threat that it's going down. Somebody needs to just make up their mind.
And, green energy isn't saving the planet. Arguably, it's worse than useless.
well, it hasn't peaked yet. i think that will be closer to 10 billion. but in terms of velocity, we're going to hit replacement soon
It's not the overall numbers that matter, it's the constituent population sizes. Sub-Saharan Africans are not the same as East Asians, even if their numbers are equal. Take a look at the projections and see just how Razib's 10 billon peak population is distributed. Big changes (some already well underway) are coming...