What an intriguing thought, especially for the Dutch to look at underwater living!
Well there are also things like kelp farming, fish farms and access to minerals underwater. But IOTL underwater habitats have not become popular because of the cost’s associated whit them. I was actually thinking on Isaac Asimov’s position about overpopulation in the 60is. He has said that he image that space exploration would come out of the need to escape the overpopulated earth. In his books earth is always pictured as overpopulated cramped places people want to escape and he transform the city planet Trantor to a pastoral planet in the Foundation series. IOTL there were also futurists in the 20is and 30is that image that overcrowded cites could house farming towers. This and many other ideas were presented before the green revolution and are surfacing now again.
Note that these too would be seen to be under Malthusian constraints (rightly or wrongly), and would not be considered infinite (renewable, yes, but not infinite).
Only fair, I think it was the word SUSTAINABLE I were looking for actually. Sustainable renewable resources management would be right up the Malthusian alley.
Maybe, maybe not. Malthusians are a bit more 'down to earth' on such matters so far...
Fair enough but it won’t stop Utopian thoughts to spring up ITTL. It’s only natural that people think about what a perfect society is. Koonsgaridans seemed like a first try to point out what a perfect society looks like and how it’s achieved. I feel like the Malthusian’s is another attempt ITTL.
Now that would be an ironic turn of events, wouldn't it....
Ironic perhaps but I don’t see the Malthusian’s advocating active starvation of millions of people if they in the same time wants them to enact social reforms.
I enjoy your timline a lot and I have to thank you for all this fantastic work.