>We frequently hear how bad billions of people are for the planet, for each other, etc. Hardly ever mentioned is the good that can come of having many people...
Could be a reason for that!

What an interesting quote from Bailey.  I had to look him up and found that the book is available on the Internet - but will I get time to read it?  A quick scan seemed to show a mind in turmoil, but perhaps I am being unkind.  Certainly some inconsistencies:

> So bountiful hath been the earth...

Not so sure about the word bountiful; it suggests some sort of benevolent being to me.

>and so securely have we drawn from it our substance, that we have taken it all for granted as if it were only a gift, and with little care or conscious thought of the consequences of our use of it...

Obviously I agree with that.

>It is good to think of ourselves -- of this teeming, tense, and aspiring human race -- as a helpful and contributing part in the plan of a cosmos, and as participators in some far-reaching destiny.

Now he swings the other way!  A rather smug and self-satisfied view of the human race.

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Not sure why you gave the following quotations:

> A new way of solving large, complex problems has become possible in just the last decade or so. Examples like Wikipedia and Linux illustrate how the work of thousands of people can be combined in ways that would have been impossible only a few years ago.

Yes, it is impressive -  but not necessarily good for the planet as those thousands of people may be contributing to its demise.

> Many important decision-making problems in the real world are so-called "wicked problems" ...

Obviously true, but it does not add much to the debate.  Some problems just affect us, some are caused by us; whether they are wicked or not.

> Radically open modeling makes it possible for end-users to leverage the expertise of many different model developers...

Hardly a reason for encouraging an exponential growth in the human population?

> We believe the Climate CoLab...

Perhaps we would not need a Climate CoLab if there were less humans?

Best wishes

Peter
52°14'44.44"N, 1°50'35"W

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