66 The Inexhaustible Resource of Technology 



since it ignores the fact that continual change, rather than a perma- 

 nent stabiUty, is characteristic not only of the earth, but of its in- 

 habitants. I believe that the prospect of impending shortages or un- 

 suitable supplies will continue to inspire the research and technical 

 advances that will make it possible to resolve such problems well in 

 advance of the doom we often are prone to foresee. 



We probably need to fear, not the exhaustion of physical resources, 

 but the dangers of inadequate or belated utilization of our intellectual 

 resources. I hope we are currently rediscovering the need to practice 

 this kind of conservation. 



Wider recognition of the part that science and technology have 

 played in the conversion of conservation from a movement based on 

 fear, to one calling for wise use of presently-used resources and the 

 preservation of social and aesthetic values, may well stimulate research 

 by the social scientists and humanists to seek comparable progress 

 towards the newer objectives. 



I have not specifically considered in this paper the dilemma that 

 appears to confront modern civilization, and which is at the root of 

 many of the more restrictive statements of conservation: the problem 

 posed by an assumed infinite population in a finite world. Personally, 

 I believe it to be another example of the dangers of projecting current 

 trends into what we can be sure will be the changed world of tomor- 

 row. Edward Teller has recently phrased this belief so felicitously that 

 I shall conclude my paper by quoting him: 



Of all long-range prophecies, the theory of Malthus may well be 

 the most plausible and the most inaccurate. About 150 years ago 

 he predicted that the population of the earth would tend to increase 

 faster than the food supply. Since he made his dire predictions the 

 rate of population increase has continued to reach higher and 

 higher levels — and so has the standard of hving throughout most of 

 the world. It is true that conditions are wretched in many countries; 

 but even where life is hard people are objecting not because they 

 look back to a happier past but rather because they demand a bet- 

 ter future — which they know can be realized. Human fertility is un- 

 doubtedly great, but so far human ingenuity has proved greater. 

 I suspect that ultimately the population of the earth will be limited 

 not by any scarcity but rather by our ability to put up with each 

 other.^i 



31 Edward Teller, "Atomic Energy in the Year 2000," The Lamp, Vol. 39, 

 p. 5. 



