Nasty, Brutish, and Tall

So how much has mankind benefitted from economic progress? Less than we might like to think. The invention of agriculture seems to have triggered a general decline in human health and loss of four inches or so in stature, probably due mainly to an inferior diet, but also perhaps to the more arduous nature of agricultural existence. Domestication of animals brought in a flood of new diseases, and greater population density facilitated epidemic spread. The general decline in stature didn't really turn around until the twentieth century.

For most of humanity, progress has usually been a bummer. The bad effects can be traced to the fact that economic "progress" triggers increases in population until Malthusian effects grind us down. Because we were originally were adapted to Darwinian competition in a much different world, we are not well suited for either the modern diet or lifestyle.

The only known or plausible way to escape the Malthusian trap is limitation of population. For the first time in human history we have good ways to do this, and much of the world has chosen to do so.

Prehistoric life was indeed nasty and brutish, but humans were well adapted to it. It took a thousand centuries, but a better way is now possible.

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