are we asking the right questions?
Can it really be considered overpopulation if we got to where we are naturally? Cities and skyscrapers are man made yet stand as natural parts of the landscape, just as the beaver dam or the anthill. We don't question our cities though they are relics; connections to the past designed to form the future, existing in the present often as roadblocks to progress.
I believe the idea of overpopulation stems from misanthropy, a general hatred of humanity, which is a fear of death manifested into cynicism as a way of protecting the psyche from the harsh reality that we all eventually stop breathing.
Overpopulation is not a thing. Human beings are intelligent enough to get where we've gotten, and now we are noticing the fact that the ways in which our ancestors have developed society no longer has the ability to sustain the mighty need of our population. As it stands at 1:32 PM on January 13 2022, there are approximately 7.9 Billion individual human beings living on this planet, all of whom require food and water, love and kindness, purpose and pain, in order to stay alive. Our system cannot provide this to all of them. We are overpopulated insofar as human society is unable to conveniently cover the costs of its continuous creation of human beings.
The entire human population can fit uncomfortably within the borders of New York City. Imagine a world where 7.9 billion people exist comfortably in a landmass the size of the United states. What would need to be done to achieve that? Imagine how amazing our infrastructure would look if we based our designs around such a massive population. Imagine how freeing it would feel to live in a world where the Human Being bases its progress on moving forward in new directions, rather than evolving out of the ever more complex primordial methods.
Too big to fail isn't a thing either, but I don't think it means we have too many lives.
I wonder if the world's leading creative minds ever sit down in a truly novel and creative intention to bust the walls down. The futurists of the past (I'm thinking Disney here, all anti-semitism aside) were unafraid to speak each fantastical idea as though they were writing the narrative of the future of humanity like an episode of Star Trek. I wonder if people en masse are capable of breaking free of the preconception that it must always be the way it was in order to ensure happiness and survival. I wonder if people will crumble under the weight of their own misguided responsibilities.
I wonder if science fiction has made me an idealist.