It's interesting that economists' notions of "steady-state" differ so much from engineers'. I think of a "steady-state" as being cyclical rather than static, a

It's interesting that economists' notions of "steady-state" differ so much from engineers'. I think of a "steady-state" as being cyclical rather than static, and I think this is probably more realistic for human populations as well. Instead of population completely flattening out, I see cultural shifts, climate change, and wars driving continued fluctuation. Hopefully our poles are in the left half of the plane.