Looking back, though, it's kind of surprising how many times we seem to have narrowly dodged the Malthusian bullet. Famine was coming... and then the Haber-Bosch ammonia synthesis process was invented. Famine was coming... and then new crops like dwarf wheat came along just in the nick of time. Most recently, we're seeing a remarkable leveling off of the world population, without needing any sort of coercive population controls.
Sometimes, the world really does work out surprisingly well. (This makes sense, of course. If the world was always worse than we expected, without any surprisingly good luck, we would just become more pessimistic until the world started pleasantly surprising us again. Still, hooray.)
Yup, quite remarkable. Remarkable that people are willing to dedicate vast amounts of efforts and resources toward projects which are hugely beneficial.
Sometimes, the world really does work out surprisingly well. (This makes sense, of course. If the world was always worse than we expected, without any surprisingly good luck, we would just become more pessimistic until the world started pleasantly surprising us again. Still, hooray.)