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Lumifer comments on Blind Spot: Malthusian Crunch - Less Wrong
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Stein's Law: If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.
On a more basic note, population growth is exponential only under certain conditions which tend to be rare and do not persist.
It's not just population growth. It's resource growth. Our entire modern system of economy is based on the idea of exponential growth. This system must collapse eventually, it's only a question of how many planets we consume before that happens.
I've heard this phrase before. I see no reason to believe it's true. Japan has been at basically zero growth for more than 20 years by now and seems to be doing fine. Sure, it could be doing better but it's not like its system of economy collapsed.
Now, government social programs tend to be based on the hope of exponential growth, but that's a different problem altogether.
Politicians and other decision makers base their economic decisions on the assumption of growth. You are correct that continued exponential growth is not necessary for a healthy society. In fact we must eventually learn to live with zero or near-zero growth, so we had best start doing it now and adjusting our policies accordingly.
Hopefully more than one. There are a lot of underutilized planets out there, even within our own solar system.