"I'm just saying that as purely technical solutions go, this one is pretty damn air-tight."
Such is the unfortunate myopia of relying on biologists for economic analyses. The solution for actual resource shortages is trade. As for the farmland issue, it's technically feasible to build a couple skyscrapers with hydroponics with a small footprint that would satisfy those requirements though we're also not running out of farmland or ability to grow food - and our ability to be increasingly productive with existing farmland increases.
Consider for example China - where those like Paul Erlich had predicted massive famines. After implementing property rights, China moved from becoming a massive importer of food to being a massive exporter - ie generating large surpluses. And there remains vast tracts of potential farmland that is underused as you move inland.
You assume war and anarchy break out wherever population greatly exceeds resources but this is a false assumption. People create their own resources and develop new ones which is why the long term trend for nearly all if not all commodities is negative sloping (very much counter intuitive since supply and demand should suggest that with greater numbers of people and fixed resources prices should rise - but the reality is that resources aren't fixed because of substitutes). I note further a number of Asian countries where demand greatly exceeds demand - HK and Singapore being two. HK was pretty much a barren rock before the British got there.
As for the term sterilization - I don't consider it scary so much as repugnant. It's proposed for societies other than one's own or or one's own social class. It is inherently oppressive as it is using your power to enforce your own value choices. Sure, I suppose one could consider it to be a technically feasible insomuch as slaughter or genocide might be, but it is as much morally repugnant as it is unnecessary.
Such is the unfortunate myopia of relying on biologists for economic analyses. The solution for actual resource shortages is trade. As for the farmland issue, it's technically feasible to build a couple skyscrapers with hydroponics with a small footprint that would satisfy those requirements though we're also not running out of farmland or ability to grow food - and our ability to be increasingly productive with existing farmland increases.
Consider for example China - where those like Paul Erlich had predicted massive famines. After implementing property rights, China moved from becoming a massive importer of food to being a massive exporter - ie generating large surpluses. And there remains vast tracts of potential farmland that is underused as you move inland.
You assume war and anarchy break out wherever population greatly exceeds resources but this is a false assumption. People create their own resources and develop new ones which is why the long term trend for nearly all if not all commodities is negative sloping (very much counter intuitive since supply and demand should suggest that with greater numbers of people and fixed resources prices should rise - but the reality is that resources aren't fixed because of substitutes). I note further a number of Asian countries where demand greatly exceeds demand - HK and Singapore being two. HK was pretty much a barren rock before the British got there.
As for the term sterilization - I don't consider it scary so much as repugnant. It's proposed for societies other than one's own or or one's own social class. It is inherently oppressive as it is using your power to enforce your own value choices. Sure, I suppose one could consider it to be a technically feasible insomuch as slaughter or genocide might be, but it is as much morally repugnant as it is unnecessary.