Trends in Ecology & Evolution
Forum: Science & SocietyThe Malthusian–Darwinian dynamic and the trajectory of civilization
Section snippets
Malthus, Darwin, and population dynamics
In 1798 Thomas Malthus laid out the concept of exponential population growth that became the foundation of demography and population biology. He noted that the ‘increase of population is necessarily limited by the means of subsistence.’ Population growth can thus continue only as long as environmental conditions remain favorable. As numbers increase, sooner or later environmental limits cause birth rates to decrease and/or death rates to increase, ultimately leading to an end to population
Ecological and historical perspective on the rise of human civilization
Humans are an exceptional species. Our population has increased almost continuously from less than a million individuals in sub-Saharan Africa 50 000 years ago to a current population of 7 billion spanning the entire globe. The human population is projected to reach between 9 and 10 billion by 2050 [1]. In the process, humans have created complex social, technological, and economic systems. We have transformed the atmosphere, water, land, and biodiversity of the planet. We have become the most
The road forward
We cannot provide definitive answers to these questions. Contemporary human civilization is a complex adaptive system, maintained far from thermodynamic equilibrium largely via the throughput of vast quantities of increasingly exhausted fossil fuel stocks [9]. This system also requires other essential and non-substitutable commodities such as metal ores, radionucleotides, rare earth elements, phosphate fertilizer, arable land, and fresh water that are becoming ever more scarce [10]. The
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2021, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its ApplicationsCitation Excerpt :Through the course of history, civilizations have adapted to the various geographical and environmental conditions to establish communities, with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life of the general population [1,2].
Cultural ecologies of adaptive vs. maladaptive traits: A simple nonlinear model
2018, Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical SimulationCitation Excerpt :Understanding in detail the social mechanics of cultural accumulation vis-a-vis the gene-culture coevolution process is no easy task [7,30], but recent research shows that the role of cumulative culture does not limit itself to the acquisition and transmission of useful cultural traits, but extends to the building of the cognitive structures that make such acquisition and transmission possible and effective [17]. In its essence, cumulative culture is the product of the tension between the Malthusian dynamic of population growth and the sophisticated evolutionary strategies that are harnessed to overcome the environmental constraints that limit or impede it through smart adaptations [37], which are maintained, reinforced and transmitted through social interaction [24,34]. Although cultural adaptations are not uncommon in the natural realm, the strong cumulative character of human culture is substantially unique at the current state of knowledge, and derives from a human-specific socio-cognitive regime that enables the production and diffusion of an ample range of complex traits rather than of a few simple traits [21], and reflects into specific differences in a variety of distinctive cognitive domains [42].
Limits to growth, planetary boundaries, and planetary health
2017, Current Opinion in Environmental SustainabilityCitation Excerpt :This aspect of limits is relevant to other past public health catastrophes such as the Rwandan and many other genocides, as well as contemporary public health catastrophes in Syria, Yemen, South Sudan and elsewhere. Humans evolved to co-operate in small groups, themselves in competition with similarly co-operating groups [36]. Although honesty within one's close group may be rewarded, openness and trust of rival group members, especially if competing [37], is unlikely, and such distrust could be hard-wired.
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