Consult a mathematics professor if you wish. The fable holds, and nothing but chaos and destruction await us; the Siamese girl who gave a chess set to the Emperor had the key.
In return for the set, his Highness offered the girl any gift she wanted.
She took from her purse one grain of wheat and placed it on the chess board. “If you would give me, sire, one grain of wheat for the first square on the board, two for the second, four for the third, the double the grains for each of the remaining squares, I would be so grateful.”
The Emperor smiled and called to his assistant, “Bring in a sack of wheat.” In time the sack was expended, plus hundreds more, and the Emperor soon saw that all the wheat in Siam would be required to fulfill this girl”s wish.
Growth of this nature, exponential, is how our world”s population is expanding. We are witnessing mind-boggling growth by doubling.
More than a few of us have seen a tripling of the world”s population in our lifetimes. China”s one-child-per-family is one answer. What is yours? Wildly escalating same-sex liaisons make a contribution to human survival.
What is your suggestion? Humanity is careening toward the edge, more rapidly all the time. Can we do nothing but watch?
Norman Fleishman
Yountville
