Section 3. Outlining. Technology and the future, part 3.
Now I would like to discuss environment, which is very much a function of transportation and communication. But it is also a function of population.

As everybody knows, we are now in a population explosion, but probably around the turn of the century this particular explosion will be controlled and the world population may be shrinking again.

Nevertheless, even with a six billion population, there may be more room than is generally imagined today.

By the 21st century, agriculture will be on the way out. It's a ridiculous process, a whole acre is needed to feed one person, because growing plants are extremely inefficient devices for trapping sunlight.

If we could develop a biological system working at a mere 5% efficiency, today's solar cells can double that, it would require 20 square feet, not one acre, to feed one person.

Food production is the last major industry to yield to technology. Only now are we doing something about it, probably too little and too late.

One promising field of research is the production of proteins from petroleum by microbiological conversion, which sounds most unappetizing, but we do use microbes to make wine.