re: the anecdote that was shared from Diamond's "Collapse" > When they get overpopulated, some members simply had to get into a canoe and paddle away, to die o

re: the anecdote that was shared from Diamond's "Collapse" > When they get overpopulated, some members simply had to get into a canoe and paddle away, to die on the sea alone. This was an example of a society which had developed bottom-up knowledge and management of population levels. As well as cases of "virtual suicide", as described, there were also traditions dictating which siblings were allowed to have children, and which were not. From memory, they also developed appropriate agricultural practices to not damage their limited available productive land. In my opinion, this society developed a successful reaction to the limits of their environment, although some aspects of it might seem very confronting or perhaps even unethical to us in other societies. On a personal note, in a strange way I found it was peaceful to read "Collapse", to learn that there have been many civilisations that have collapsed in the past -- civilisations that were in some sense more successful (by lasting for a longer period) than the civilisation I am part of. Similarly there is a sense of peace in learning more about the non-human parts of natural history. It's not all about us.