The Raven and the Stormcrow

There was once a village with ten people.

It was a very small village, and ideally it should have supported only eight. However, everyone was still ok at having 80% nutrition level, even though it made them mildly unhappy. Still, they shared and shared alike.

Every so often, an 11th member would be born.. But the resulting drop in nutrition levels would cause a member to expire, so the village would go back to having ten members, at 80% nutrition level.

One day, the super-cow was invented. It survived on nothing but water but still gave off more meat than a normal cow. Everyone rejoiced at an invention that would obviously make everybody's life better.

And for a while it did. The ten people in the village each had five times the food they had before (400% nutrition). Life was good.

When an 11th member was born, food was so plentiful that the drop in nutrition levels (to 363%) was unnoticable. Finally, the village was able to increase its size!

And when the 12th (333%), and the 15th (267%), and the 25th member (160%) of the village was born, there was still more than enough food for everyone, so everyone was still happy.

When the village had its 40th member, everyone still had 100% nutrition level. Everyone was still happy.

When the 41st member was born, nutrition dropped to 97.5%. This made people slightly unhappy, but it was still above the minimum survival level, so nobody expired.

When the 50th member was born, nutrition levels were back at 80%. The way it was before.

When the 51st member was born, nutrition dropped a little too low, and someone expired. Back to 50 members. So the village had found the new stable population: 50 members, and 80% nutrition.

And in the end, everyone was back to being mildly unhappy.. except of course, now there were a lot more of them.


Technology doesn't make more people happy; it makes more unhappy people. For as long as people themselves don't change.


The Stormcrow