A human plateau doesn't mean a slow decrease in population. It means mass starvation, increased aggression. It means a whole lotta trouble.

I'm inclined to doubt this assertion because Japan is currently going through a population decrease, and if you ignore immigration, so is the US. Neither are suffering from mass starvation, nor increased aggression.

Now, with most organisms, you see booms and busts in populations because of slow or non-existent feedback population feedback loops. Indeed, computer models show that selfish genes dominate because there is normally no evolutionary incentive for life to limit reproduction. However, you still see widespread usage of birth control and other factors limiting the growth of human populations.

Why? Education and the continued development of medicine. Most of us are intelligent enough creatures to be able to predict the effects of reproduction and for the first time in the history of man, we can take steps to circumvent the consequences of our primal instincts. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to realize that if you're barely making enough money to support yourself, having a child will sink you into poverty.

The author is quick to demonize STEM, but modern medicine, namely contraception, has induced a turning point in so many different categories of life. And it at least affords some humane opportunity for population control that doesn't involve eating the babies out of each others' cribs.