They’re anticipating another ‘peak capacity’ point for humanity around 2050 or so. I believe the prediction is based on agricultural practices and capacity. I’m not entirely certain about this, I only heard about it in passing. What I do know, though, is there will always be a breakthrough to enable us to chase these ambitions of growth and expansion. My only question is; what will the next breakthrough be? A few hundred years ago it was a chain of islands with thousands of years of bird guano being shipped globally to fertilize crops. After that, the Haber process enabled further population boom. I honestly can’t predict the next explosion, but honestly I think it might come in the form of commodity vertical farming. Cheap and effective vertical farming would easily alleviate a lot of issues with land utilization, and I think that was one of the expected barriers to further growth.

It’s all speculation, though, and honestly the things that have allowed us to get to this point were never anticipated. Each was a one-off that just perchance enabled periods of population explosion previously undreamt of.

Bleh. This post is so uninspired. I need to get back on track.