What is the most important engineering problem of our future?

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

Maybe this is part of the engineering question - how can we prosper without the need for a constantly increasing population?

What science and technology advancements would allow us to turn the size of our population back, way back? To allow our standard of living to continue to improve, with less and less people?

The first one is hardest to deal with. We live in an economy that demands ever increasing levels of production to stay "healthy". If we all just consume at the same rate we are now for the next ten years, our economy would collapse, because it depends on growth to work. Fixing that is going to be a severe shock to the system.

The second one is easier. As people's standard of living rises, the number of children they have decreases. In some countries today, they are staying afloat population-wise through immigration, not reproduction. Italy is an example as I recall, but that was in the media so I'm not sure how accurate it is.