May Contain Peanuts

Excuse me?

Here's a little nugget that can bake your noodle if you delve too deep...there's a shit ton of people on this Earth. Ha, yeah, this is a pretty obvious statement and something that is easily shrugged off, but yesterday on my drive home, as I contemplated the many happenings of the world, I paused and really thought about my place among the 6 BILLION humans on this planet.

We all know that cities are dense with people, suburbs are ever growing and China produces people faster than Hollywood can produce shitty unneeded sequels. (China's birth rate is about 13 per 1000 people). Anyways, what got my mind cooking is the sheer exponential growth this planet has faced over the course of a few thousand years.

It is estimated that around 1000 BC there were only 50,000 people worldwide. 50,000! That's less than the population of Bismarck, North Dakota! By 1000 AD, the number rises to over 300,000. Then just recently in the year 2000, the estimated world population is over 6,000,000,000. That is 4 extra zeroes! Ridiculous!

Now, after the recent 'boom age', census-peoples are saying that the 'growth rate' is actually declining and populations aren't exploding as they used to (they base this on later marriage ages, less need for big families, and more contraception options, etc.). This is all well and dandy except that the populations will still continue to grow.

This being the case, in my thinking I was not concerned about the near future; my lifetime, my child's life time, grand-kid etc, but rather I realized that there absolutely will come a point when there is just no more room for everyone. This also got me thinking that people will not be stupid enough to let this happen, meaning that at some point there will be a forced control, a limit to reproduction or even a mass 'extermination' to make this room.

OK, this is serious stuff, why would I even concern myself with such doom and gloom? Good question. I ask myself the same thing when considering global warming or the concept of outer space, these thing so far out of my reach that in reality, it won't concern me at all. But I think there is something in our human condition (and some may say the reason for life) that makes us want to be able to keep our genes going, to want to keep us alive, to keep hope alive. What this population conundrum roused up was the idea that all things aside, there is an endgame. There is a point when it all will end and it is beyond anyone's control.

I've always had the fantasy that by the time I am old, I will have the option of freezing myself or somehow placing my mind in frozen animation, able to be reawakened when the proper time comes. This idea of immortality is what everyone seeks (it's the great reward of most religions) and is something that everyone really wants. Dying sucks, the end sucks, and the worst part is that it is unavoidable.

So what's a person to do? My answer is to live it up. These realizations are going to change anything. Hell, all of these bitchings in these postings aren't really going to change anything. I'll continue to live my life as happy as I can possibly do it and will greet my end when the time comes. I'm happy I'm in a world that I can still have an optimistic attitude about. Imagine if we were born in the times when there is 1 TRILLION people on Earth. Talk about being cozy with your neighbors.