Ed Weick
>The foregoing has been written with something bordering on tongue in cheek
>(Eva please take note), and is probably a terrible misapplication of
>biological science. Nevertheless, it does suggest that human beings are more
>flexible than both weeds and gorillas. But it might also suggest the
>ultimate triumph of k strategists as the opportunities for exercising r
>strategies become fewer and fewer. If only those gorillas could hang on a
>little longer!
Actually, I think Ed's tongue in cheek comment hits the nail on the head
(ouch!). I don't believe the r and K strategies are meant to define mutually
exclusive species characteristics. The capacity to consciously switch from
an r to a K (or from a K to an r) strategy, however, may be a function of
language and thus may be uniquely human.
Perhaps a picture would help:
http://www.wwu.edu/~stephan/Animation/pyramid.html
The above URL contains an animated population pyramid for the United States
from 1950 to 2050. The animation is made from a series of statistical
"snapshots", taken at five year intervals, of the gender and age composition
of the U.S. population. What you see is a throbbing, pulsating "beast". A
population is a living thing.
I'll go out on a limb here and say that the rhythm of those throbs reflects
several switchs between r and K strategies, rather than any encountering of
absolute physical limits (carrying capacity). In other words, there would
appear to be a "cultural carrying capacity" distinct from and necessarily
less than physical carrying capacity.
I'm not saying that our cultural carrying capacity automatically clicks in
to save us from the physical. I'm saying that we (as a species) can switch
from an r strategy to a K strategy, if we are wise. The r (neo-liberal)
propaganda tells us that we have somehow transported ourselves to perpetual
r heaven -- a world in which interest can compound infinitely. Not only is
this story (the official version of economic reality) implausible, it's
mathematically impossible.
Regards,
Tom Walker
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