Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 47 — page 43: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION people will merely die of old age, whatever that is. Longevity will be increased so that people will hang around for getting on for a century. Living conditions will be so sweet and nice and secure that people will have no objection to raising large families. The world will be choc-a-bloc with people! All right, you say, we open up the tracts of land that are now lying useless in Asia, in America, in the frazen lands around the north and south poles. And then, when they get too crowded for comfort, we shall be on our way to Mars and Venus, where mil- lions of acres lie waiting for humanity’s hordes. Fine! But suppose these two events do not coincide? Suppose that by the time we are treading on each other’s toes in every part of the world, we still haven’t perfected the means of getting to other planets?—or still haven’t mastered the tech- nique of living on them? If we are all sensible people, you say, we shall not mind living in such close proximity. Maybe you are right, though it still might be said that there 42 would come a time when, literally, there would not be_ room to bend down. But that is not the point, The main point is—how are we going to — feed all these people? Some economists believe that the root of most present- day troubles in the world is due to the hopeless inadequacy of the present agricultural system. How much worse it will be in the future, with © several more billion mouths to feed! It is no use saying that science will find a way of © making crops produce more food. Basic thermodynamics tells us that we can get no more out of a plant than we put in. Luckily a lot of what goes in is free—sunlight and carbon dioxide. But no one © yet has been able to grow anything in pure water and | air, however much sunlight is available—and no one ever will. Hydroponics might help, _ but where are we going to put the vast tanks that would be ~~ required? All available land is needed for living space. We ~ shall not be able to open up __ great mines to get the mineral salts that the plants must have. And even if we could, one conmichooks.cOnm