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The following idea comes from a SciFi role playing game Traveller™: The maximum sustainable techlevel of an economy equals the logarithm base 10 of the populat
by kephra 13y ago
The following idea comes from a SciFi role playing game Traveller™:
The maximum sustainable techlevel of an economy equals the logarithm base 10 of the population. Even if a population of 10k-40k people is genetically healthy, they would fall back to to techlevel 4 or 5. They would be just able to sustain a technology of medieval times.
- flatline 13y agoI suspect there is a tipping point. If there is sufficient automation and information available, a very small number of people could potentially reproduce/rebuild a full high-tech society in a short amount of time. Vinge's "Marooned in Realtime" engages in similar speculation. IIRC his requirement for preventing inbreeding was something on the order of 20 people -- much lower than the parent article's 150 bare minimum, with 10K being more realistic.