Re:A letter to Steven Pinker about global poverty
by pas on Tuesday February 12, 2019 @07:32AM
(#19142952)
Why would ecologists think in straight lines? Don't they start with the Lotka-Volterra differential equations to model prey-predator population fluctuations? (Even if they learn just the concept, and not the underlying math.) Also, haven't they learn a bit about exponential bloom and decay of algae?
economists think in curves - starting from a low base it's very easy to improve fast, but the rate of improvement drops off as it nears the global average.
ecologists think in straight lines - the rate of improvement is x/year, so in 50 years the improvement will be 50x and they'll be richer than Sweden, who are only improving at (x/10)/year.