Malthusianism is an early form of basilisk. its enduring popularity, despite batting .000, comes from its promise that *somebody* is going to have to choose what kind of people there needs to be fewer of — who of course is going to be someone wise enough to embrace Malthusianism
Conversation
this is both carrot and stick: become an early adopter, get to play God and settle scores; wait around or deny and you're basically volunteering to be culled. really very solid design if you're looking for a durable meme that will kill a lot of people
5
7
47
Replying to
This critique generalizes even more I think. It’s basically determinists who either willfully or obliviously ignore natural corrective/homeostatic mechanisms for nonlinear extrapolated instabilities. Ranging from market supply/demand to exit/voice to collapse.
Which suggests that they fear indeterminate outcomes from relatively neutral mechanisms much more than any determinate dystopia.
“Oh shit, the outcome could effectively be a coin toss”
1
5
This suggests also that they overestimate their personal agency in crafting determinate outcomes where they come out on top because of their agency identity as wiser/stronger/smarter/kinder etc.
2
4
Show replies
Although in the Malthusian case, I'd argue that food shortages are a /linear/ instability in that food production per year is directly proportional to human life carrying capacity, ceteris paribus
1
1
In the long term yeah, but the classical Malthusian argument assumes short term geometric population dynamics and a high starting point for living standards to fall from
2


