The HealthCare Blue Book tells an interesting story: * $16,435 for traditional gall bladder removal, somewhat below the estimate http://healthcarebluebook.com

The HealthCare Blue Book tells an interesting story: * $16,435 for traditional gall bladder removal, somewhat below the estimate http://healthcarebluebook.com/page_Results.aspx?id=75&dataset=MD http://healthcarebluebook.com/page_Results.aspx?id=75&da... * $6,934 for the modern minimally invasive equivalent, far below the estimate http://healthcarebluebook.com/page_Results.aspx?id=74&dataset=MD http://healthcarebluebook.com/page_Results.aspx?id=74&da... More evidence that projecting trends without considering technical progress is bound to result the sort of overly pessimistic results that Malthus made famous. For example, Dr. Bartlett's two-column view on population assumes that people will need some certain number of square feet of land. But why wouldn't we build up, ala NYC? Or settle the ocean (http://seasteading.org/ http://seasteading.org/)? Or colonize the stars? Or perhaps even transfer our consciousness to some more efficient representation? Yes, exponential growth presents problems, but exponential progress in technology has the power to solve them. That's where we (and others like us) come in.