3 ms·

> In the long-term, no. In the short-to-medium term, yes. If we are talking about relatively small religious subcultures, numbering in the tens/hundreds of thou

> In the long-term, no. In the short-to-medium term, yes. If we are talking about relatively small religious subcultures, numbering in the tens/hundreds of thousands, the idea that they might make it to many millions before hitting fundamental barriers to further population growth is not implausible. You don't "hit barriers to population growth" they're more like asymptotic limits, derived from relativity. Population growth is pushing against these limits the entire time, and they push back harder and harder. I really like your other points, though, very illuminating.

skissane 5y ago
> You don't "hit barriers to population growth" they're more like asymptotic limits, derived from relativity. For a civilisation at our level of technological development, I think the limits are primarily classical rather than relativistic. Relativity is more of a limit when you start to run out of resources within the Solar System - a quite distant prospect at present - it makes it very expensive to spread to further star systems; and then once you run out of resources in the galaxy, intergalactic travel is so ludicrously expensive you have to doubt it will ever be practical. My speculative scenario was about the next couple of centuries, while interstellar colonisation (if it ever happens) is likely many centuries distant. > I really like your other points, though, very illuminating. Thanks