“What about ambulances, fire trucks, and hospitals?”
"What about ambulances, fire trucks, and hospitals?", some people ask. "Don't they help us and require polluting?" "Checkmate," I can almost hear them thinking. "We can't get rid of them, so we have to keep culture going as is." Meanwhile Hawaiians lived sustainably over centuries, long past when Malthusian collapse, if inevitable, would have happened. Hawaiians lived on their own for centuries, longer than the time since the Enlightenment to today. They seem to have reached an optimal or at least stable, sustainable population. In a stable situation like theirs, life-extending technology would affect everyone. The longer I lived, the fewer births could happen without overshooting the islands' ability to sustain life. When I died, a couple could have another child. If technology or innovation…
