"Gortman says, “What is the population of the 799th floor?”
“805, last I heard.”
“And of Shanghai?”
“About 33,000.”
“And of Urbmon 116?”
“881,000.”
“And there are fifty urban monads in this constellation of houses?”
“Yes.”
“Making some 40,000,000 people,” Gortman says. “Or somewhat more than the entire human population of Venus. Remarkable!”
“And this isn’t the biggest constellation, not by any means!” Mattern’s voice rings with pride. “Sansan is bigger, and so is Boshwash! And there are several larger ones in Europe—Berpar, Wienbud, I think two others. With more being planned!” "
3.5 out of 5
http://us.macmillan.com/BookCustomPage.aspx?isbn=9780765324320&m_type=1#excerpt
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
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1 comments:
Does nobody in these UrbMons actually grasp the concept of compounding growth? 30 seconds on Excel tells me that with the population growth rate specified in the novel, 3%, they'll pass that limit of 200 billion within 35 years. At which point the religious birth control taboo is going to slam into cold, hard reality and they'll have either civil war or famine, or both. Good thing they established self-supporting colonies on other planets, because civilization on Earth is about to come to an abrupt end.
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