Quite off-topic, but sometimes I even wonder if we should not "de-colonize" Earth. I first thought of that when I learnt that if all human population was living in one place with the same population density as in Tokyo, this megacity would fit in the state of California or something.

That sounds extreme, but I somehow am attracted by the idea of leaving entire continents completely void of humans.

E.O. Wilson has proposed setting aside half the earth for nature. That would be achievable by protecting existing wilderness areas and connecting them together into corridors.

Which half ? Try to get humans to agree on it.

well realistically you only need to get the governments of the UN to agree which is a little less daunting. I can easily imaging taking the Sahara, Siberia, the interior of Australia, and the steppe would get us a good chunk of the way there. Adding on the amazon might be possible with effort.

Of course, these areas have substantial mineral/oil deposits that make the current political situtation difficult. But it's not outside of the realms of possibility that this may eventually stop being the case, such as how Britain's one ubiquitous coal mines are all closed now.

The thought experiment usually goes that the world's population could all fit into the state of Texas, at New York City density.

That always ignores the space required for agriculture, roads and transportation, waste management, power, manufacturing, and of course the natural resources that modern society depends on.

Also, I'd risk arrest or worse just to get out of that area and get some damn peace and quiet. I just spent a week in Chicago. It was fantastic. I'm really glad I'm not still there.

(And no, we shouldn't de-colonize Earth, we should get better at living in it.)

There's a Wikipedia rabbit hole on the subject at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_European_colonialism_a....

I don't have any other citations or references at hand, sorry.

But, you're attempting to rebut me using a rather deeply-nested stack of science and technology developed in some former colonies.

You might also give my earlier comment a more careful reading. I didn't imply that progress is limited to colonization, only that it contributes to it.

I think trying to give credit to colonization for Hacker News, web browsers, and whatnot, is a ridiculous thing.