Re: [HoE] Junkers Gear and a minor rant

[jayson@ccat.sas.upenn.edu (Jay E Treat III)]

| Why would the cities be the same size they are today?  Are you saying cities
| and population would not have grown between 1998 and 2081?  Or are you
| saying that HoE in 1998 had a drastically smaller population than reality?

	Most cities will reach a peak population which won't increase,
as least not appreciably, because they've maximized all available
resources to their limits (Barring of course discovery or invention of
new resources).  Really big cities would probably continue to grow at
scary rates and so you'd probably have one or two megalopolises in each
wealthy country.  Probably three of four in America.  Maybe six.  Now I'm
ranting.  Dang.

| And what if the environmentalist wackos were able to control governments and
| force populations into pre-designated "sustainable areas", or whatever they
| call it.  What if all populations were concentrated in cities, with no rural
| living?

	Well I don't think that environmentalists would stand much of a
chance in this particular universe, but if these "sustainable areas" came
about (and I basically conjecture that they do for the megalopolises),
than, the same government which instituted them would also affect
population control.  Because there's a finite supply of food that farmers
can produce (granted, with all their gadgets it's a good deal) and so if
the amount of food available isn't increasing the gov won't let the
population increase.

| Enquiring minds want to know!

	Not my best post, but it'll do.

_____________________________________________________________________________
Jay E. Treat III		         	    jayson@ccat.sas.upenn.edu