They say that hunter-gatherers lived a pretty healthy life. They walked a lot, saw a lot, ate many different kinds of food, and, most of all, they lived in small groups. They moved from one era to the next, leaving enough animals and plants behind so they could return a few seasons later or another tribe could move in. Even among hunter-gatherers, there were centers of worship and meeting places, but no one stayed long enough to claim a throne or dictate a need. You might say that we all should live like that now, in 2024, with no large-scale politics, wars, or large companies where you are not more than a replaceable drone. 

I suspected a problem, and that is space. If I remember correctly, a group of roaming gatherers and hunters needs around 400 times more space for their food supply than an agricultural society. 

I asked the AI and this was the answer it gave: “Estimating the number of hunter-gatherers that could live on Earth involves various factors, including available resources, land use, and population density. Historically, hunter-gatherer societies typically required large territories to sustain themselves, as they relied on wild plants and animals for food.

Research suggests that a sustainable hunter-gatherer population density might range from 1 to 10 people per square mile, depending on the environment and resources available. Given the Earth’s land area of about 57 million square miles, this could imply a potential population of anywhere from approximately 57 million to over 570 million hunter-gatherers, assuming all land is equally suitable for such a lifestyle. However, it’s important to note that this is a theoretical estimate and does not account for current land use, urbanization, and agricultural practices that dominate today’s world”.

So, even if this answer is not completely accurate, it makes sense that no more than half a billion people could live as hunter-gatherers. There is no way that we can go back, even if we wanted. It would be a cool movie if we tried it. Maybe the other 7 billion go into hibernation with a VR set on, and we take turns. The movie should play a thousand years after we started this experiment. Can you imagine the overgrown cities where only the libraries are lit and airconditioned so all the knowledge we once had is still there to cherish and ignore as we do now?