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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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