Timeline for How many people are necessary to maintain modern civilisation?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
6 events
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| Jun 20, 2019 at 15:49 | comment | added | Bill K | @Michael Might go the other way... without mass production every device could be hand crafted or custom built. Consider a 20 person team manufacturing cars that only had to put out one or two a year--no need for a high throughput assembly line... But getting back to the component density of an iPhone would be impossible for a LONG time. | |
| Jun 20, 2019 at 14:53 | comment | added | Michael | +1, with fewer customers we’d also have much less variety. Today we can buy hundreds of different cars, smartphones, drilling machines, cutlery, furniture etc. etc. With fewer customers you’d probably have only one or two types of each. | |
| Jun 20, 2019 at 11:22 | comment | added | Cumehtar | I think this is a nearest to the right answer to the question. It seems to me that the function of technology level by population is in no way a linear function. A 5-10% loss, especially among qualified workers and scientists will, most likely, be more damaging to the global technological level then the worldwide reduction of population to 50% overnight. The second scenario may even cause a global boom similar to late-medieval leap after the Black Death, as the population pressure is reduced and resources are freed. | |
| Jun 19, 2019 at 23:56 | comment | added | Bill K | I think that if you took a group of a few thousand people, dropped them naked on a new planet and gave them access to all our currently recorded knowledge, they would have decent housing, food and other necessities within a couple years.. Without current tools it would take MUCH LONGER to get back to computers though without existing tools. the problem with the 10 year collapse is the chaos it would probably cause--that could take a while to sort out--but you'd also start with sewers, homes and other infrastructure that would last for a few generations. | |
| Jun 19, 2019 at 11:17 | comment | added | user65791 | The premise of the question was: the situation on the ground changes in a decade; if sufficient adjustments are not made very quickly, could total collapse ensue? It is not at all clear to me that the sorts of adjustments you mention could be implemented in the relatively short time available: it strikes me that many would take considerable planning and potentially multiple generations to effect. | |
| Jun 18, 2019 at 21:17 | history | answered | Bill K | CC BY-SA 4.0 |