[allmendream]

You assume that the rate was constant growth over that time period.

Human population increased when we moved from food procurement to a food production lifestyle.

Human population would have risen exponentially from those 2,000 people and then leveled off when they had filled all available livable land and started to compete with other people for resources.

Human population was pretty stable at something less than one billion people for most of human history; until industrial agriculture and modern medicine combined with the subsistence mentality of most the world to produce our worlds six billion people.

[Frobenius]

...Human population was pretty stable at something less than one billion people for most of human history; until industrial agriculture and modern medicine combined with the subsistence mentality of most the world to produce our worlds six billion people.

Yes, I understand but 0.02% average growth over that 70,000 year period is about as "stable" as you can get -

E.g., 0.02% growth with a thousand people results in only 1221 people at the end of a thousand years (according to my trusty HP12C :) 0.02% growth is incredibly small.

If the average was 0.02% per year, then there had to be huge time spans of absolute negative growth - entire populations dieing out etc.

Interesting to think about - that's all.