I'll take your Malthus and raise you a Bartlett. https://bollocks2012.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/the-greatest-shortcoming-of-the-human-race-is-our-inability-to-un

I'll take your Malthus and raise you a Bartlett. https://bollocks2012.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/the-greatest-shortcoming-of-the-human-race-is-our-inability-to-understand-the-exponential-function/ https://bollocks2012.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/the-greatest-s... Also, from your linked article from random space cadets: "Unless people can see broad vistas of unused resources in front of them, the belief in limited resources tends to follow as a matter of course." Sorry, but O(2^n) is going to grow faster than O(n^3), which is the fundamental limitation of the speed of light for a space-faring civilization expanding in a shell from its origin. Exponential growth just does not scale.