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Re: Ecological Economics and Entropy



In <32851B86.812@ilhawaii.net> Jay Hanson <jhanson@ilhawaii.net>
writes: 
>
>jw wrote:
> 
>-> *If* a hypothetical team went from 3 members to 4, 5, ...9,
>-> then to 10, 11, ... 89; and gained in performance
>-> each time it increased, *then* a reasonable
>-> (though not infallible) extrapolation would predict it
>-> doing even better at 90.
>
>If you define "gained in performance" as:
> "Filling the dump truck with dead babies faster",
>   then you are right.  See:
>http://csf.Colorado.EDU/authors/hanson/zaire_goma_dead_30.mov
>
>Do we get some sort of prize if we fill the truck faster?

Two points: 
(1) you are missing the logical thread.
Past gain in performance was not the issue:
extrapolating it was.

(2) as for your horrible phrase
"Filling the dump truck with dead babies faster" -
you couldn't be more wrong factually.
 
Infant mortality has been *falling* as population 
increased.

It is one of the proudest indicators of our wonderful 
progress.

E.g., in India, infant mortality declined
from 146 per 1,000 live births in 1961 to 74 in 1993:
thus, it has been cut in half in 32 years!

*This* is what I mean by "gain in performance"!

Let us stay on course - and fill the dump truck
faster with dead malthusian prophecies.


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