Larger world population in 2006
- Thread starter Straha
- Start date
Tony Jone's Cliveless World has 10 billion people living on Earth by 2000. This is because of a philosophy that develops in the French Empire which dictates that improvement of the human condition (especially through agriculture) should be central to civilization. Biology and genetics are far more advanced.....while nuclear power and spaceflight are only recent invention.
Earlier acceptance of the germ theory would also be important - or is that part of that TL; I've never read it.
Smallpox eradicated 100 years before it was, same with many other diseases, would really help a lot. Not sure how that happens with a post-1800 POD, someone's trying it in the SHWI-ISOT game (just search for SHWI-ISOT) over in yahoo groups, but it's a tough go convincing people. You'd need someone with a very determined nature.
avoid World War One or make it a very quick win, and that helps, too. But, you're right, it would have to be something revolutionary that really pushes it over the top.
Smallpox eradicated 100 years before it was, same with many other diseases, would really help a lot. Not sure how that happens with a post-1800 POD, someone's trying it in the SHWI-ISOT game (just search for SHWI-ISOT) over in yahoo groups, but it's a tough go convincing people. You'd need someone with a very determined nature.
avoid World War One or make it a very quick win, and that helps, too. But, you're right, it would have to be something revolutionary that really pushes it over the top.
I don't think wars are going to have a big enough effect. Same goes for germ theory I think. With the excption of lack food and water, the birth rate can far outstrip whatever is killing people off, given the right circumstances. A Mormon-esque religion would help... the Americas could support far more population than they currently do.
Now I'm not saying these wouldn't be good things, and most likely a religious people would want to make life better for everyone. But I think it comes down to producing enough food and drinking water.
So a green revolution coming earlier would be good, though the green revolution has had its critics. I'd suggest something like widespread desalinization plants also.
Greenhouses have plenty of potential here. You can typically produce something like 16 times the produce in a greenhouse as on an equal sized plot of land, and you control the climate, which eliminates a lot of the variables in crop production. Greenhouses can also be used to produce seedlings to extend the growing season.
Now I'm not saying these wouldn't be good things, and most likely a religious people would want to make life better for everyone. But I think it comes down to producing enough food and drinking water.
So a green revolution coming earlier would be good, though the green revolution has had its critics. I'd suggest something like widespread desalinization plants also.
Greenhouses have plenty of potential here. You can typically produce something like 16 times the produce in a greenhouse as on an equal sized plot of land, and you control the climate, which eliminates a lot of the variables in crop production. Greenhouses can also be used to produce seedlings to extend the growing season.
A lot of focus on rural areas. The Romantics of the early 19th century glorify rustic conditions and the improvement of the human spirits.
In the USA, this translates into more people getting into the farming business early. The McKormick Reaper appears even earlier than in OTL. In Western Europe, agricultural science becomes accelerated. A slower industrial revolution perhaps?
It could be that the influx of small farmers on America's western frontiers leads to a decline of slavery, as Free, agriculturally-based states come into the Union.
A dark side effect of all this is that eugenics becomes embraced earlier and more enthusiastically than in OTL.........
A dark side effect of all this is that eugenics becomes embraced earlier and more enthusiastically than in OTL.........
Why? That appears to be a non-sequitor... maybe I am missing something.
An earlier green revolution is likely to coincide with a much deeper interest in human biology, since a green philosophy is likely to stem from the ideals of bettering human kind. But there are bound to be elements that try their hand at eugenics in such a world.........
Is that necessarily the case? Is it an inevitability? What about a world where "be fruitful and multiply" and "all men are created equal" win out over eugenics?
Yeah, that'll be the mainstream, but earlier on, there will more interest in eugenics before that happens.......
Max Sinister
Banned
Earlier industrial revolution, faster development of science, earlier exchange of plants between Old and New World, and especially all kinds of agricultural revolutions like crop rotation. Fortunately, if one of those happens, the probability of the others also rises.