Day: May 13, 2018

As a great believer in speculative fiction I find it astoundingly interesting that the human population only reached a billion people in 1804. It took about a hundred years to hit the next billion. It took 30 years to get the next billion and… 14 more to get the next billion. Between 1804 and 2018 we jumped to 7.8 billion people on this planet. Yet we are slowing down. We are moving from the maddening 2% growth rate of the 60’s to 1.09% growth rate of 2018. This has some analysts thinking that we are in continuing decline as a species. It suggests that we are shifting towards the baseline .25% rate of the early evolution of man. This theory does not, however, speak to what is going to happen once we get there. What if the cycle of humanity is one that continues to turn. What if once we bottom out again, we breed at a high level? What are the conditions that, sociologically, would allow that? When I consider writing deep science fiction novels, those are the sorts of things I am looking at.

In this specific context I am thinking of space exploration. The numbers we are at right now don’t really make us uncomfortable. In places like Bangladesh where population density is 1,278 people per sq kilometer, the idea of space is a constant. However, even in India the p/km2 is only 455. China is 151. Both are large enough and have the size of population to be fairly comfortable with this. In contrast, the p/km2 for New York City is 11,000. Imagine if that was everywhere. 

We would be desperate to get off this planet. However, we are not. In the United States we are absolutely not. Instead with our number at 36 we’ve gone in a different direction. We have gotten so used to having a ton of space we are now trying to prevent more people from coming in and upsetting the balance. Yet here they come-to the tune of 900,000 a year. We are still in the Qin Dynasty stages of building walls vs. rockets. We still see this planet and our personal space as something that can be maintained.

What if we didn’t? And it is here that speculative fiction begins.

I spent part of my evening listening to a conversation between Barrack Obama and Dave Letterman. I was reminded throughout how different it feels to have a President who is in that role because he about his country and not because he is about himself. I’m not making a move to relitigate the election. Instead I am reflecting on the demeanor and the very nature of the men in power.

We are in many ways a reflection of those who lead us. We are a reflection of those we see as the seat of power. We try to emulate these interesting people and as a result we become a form of them and they of us. This is why I have such grave concerns about what is very quickly happening to us under the present administration.

This is not only a fear, but this is a strange certainty where I know that the situation is bound to get far worse before it gets any better. It is an absolute struggle and I struggle with knowing my personal role in all of this.