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Comment by ssl-3 | Hacker News Reader

We might.

If we have 54 million square kilometers of habitable land that is not used for agriculture, and we scatter 8 billion people across it, then we end up with a population density of about 148 people per square kilometer -- which is approximately what Florida is today.

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If that is your plan you need teleporters for everybody so you don't need to pave the world to get basic access.

It's not my plan. I was just evaluating one aspect of its practicality. It would be a shitty idea to propose that everyone live in exactly the same way.

Diversity is generally good. It's nice to have some options available.

(Even with universal teleporters, diversity is generally good.)

Do we have the resources to support such a sprawly civilization? It's not just the land, it's all the infrastructure (roads, plumbing, power, etc.) which isn't free.

No, of course not.

But the claim was about the unavailability of space, not of man-made infrastructure.

I said we don't have enough earths to support everyone living in sprawl. That's talking about resources, not just land.

If the fair distribution is that we have 150 people per square km i.e. approx 6500sqm or 1.5 acres per person, then realistically the answer has to be that some people have a lot more than that and some people have a lot less, because 1.5 acres isn't a large amount of land at all once you get outside of the city.

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