Well, population is only taxpayers in GC2. It seems that lots are hiding or a way to use robots as taxpayers had been found

Don't think of population as the actuall number of people. Think of it as the size of the tax-base.

It's a game and population is just a game element and works pretty well as implemented in what is one really good game.

However , in game terms, morale goes down as population goes up but one of the 'explanations' for population ( tax base ) going up is more people joining the tax ranks -- so shouldn't morale really being going up if more people are willing/able to pay taxes?

And if you think population raises 'reality' questions -- think about having to choose between production-research. Why should we have too? We have production capacity and we have resesrch capacity. Then for no reason at all we have to choose between them. Personally for game play I sort of lean towards like having to choose between them but have certainly been fluctuating on how I feel about it.

But once again it's just a game and I'm just a paying customer that really likes the game.

But the original question was about population in 2222, nope I don't think it's dumb to think Earth's population might only be 5 billion then -- it'll probally be much more than that imho but could easily be less ( wars, famine, enviormental disasters both man made and natural, plagues, etc.... ).

and omg the game isnt realistic... oh wait thats cause its a game.

RL is out side game is on your computor.

I bet your one of the people who think CS is realistic.

Maybe the future of civilization just loves to get jiggy with it. A lot.

In 2222 the population of the world in humans will be nill to none. Environmental things will happend to destroy mandkind. Nuclear fallout will destroy 2/3rds of it before that because someone IS GOING TO PRESS THE BUTTON before then. So really 5 billion is farfectched and not realistic. Roaches and Ants will evolve rapidly from the radiation fallout and become the new supreme species on earth. They will also hunt what is left of mankind for SPORT. Ants will pour gasoline on them for payback of all the times little kids poured gasoline on them. Roaches will use RAID rifles.

That's not how it's gonna happen, all the bugs will evolve into humanoids, and the humans will devolve into canaballistic mutants, that will hide in desert hills and ambush bugs and eat them.      

I think one of two things will happen. Either man suffer some kind of cataclysm and get reduced to living like he did 10,000 years ago or, will not and continue to develop culturally and technologically. In that case, the game could be true to reality in that man will have discovered a "hyperdrive" of sorts and go to the stars. Don't know that the galactic pioneers would meet Drengins and Thalans and the like, but they'd probably find lots of interesting things to say the least.

Trying to put the game in some sort of realistic framework is a stretch at best, but what if they were using some technological method of reproduction that did not rely on good old fashion biological reproduction. In that case, it might be possible to make 5 billion humans over the course of several months. In any case, imagine the game's pace using a natural human reproduction cycle. Don't think I'd want to play a 10,000 turn game. 520 is long enough for me thanks.

A normal reproduction rate

How do you know the average gestation period of a Thalan?

I've read that the birth rate of most of the Western world is actually rather below replacement levels. Most births in the world are in developing nations now. So if we finally manage to bring everyone on Earth up to developed status, it's possible it might drop back down to 5bil in a few hundred years.

I like to think of the population size as the number of taxpayers who pay enough taxes to make a difference in a galactic economy. Right now, in 2001, I think Earth would be hard-pressed to find even a hundred million such taxpayers, and almost all of those would be corporations, not individuals. So by 2225, 5 bil doesn't seem too unrealistic.

There are still going to be all kinds of service economy jobs by then, because it would be ridiculously expensive to replace a minimum-wage earner with a robot. New colonies will need unskilled and low-skilled workers as much as the home planet - just not as many of them.

People working at a discount baby-clothes outlet aren't going to be paying galactic-scale taxes. But, if they pass the tests and volunteer for the week-long hypnotraining course in Orbital Induction Welding, suddenly they will be earning enough that their taxes matter in the galactic economy.

Yeah, that's a hell of alot of rationalization, but it works for me.

Would it? For all we know, Torians emerge fully grown from pods after a two-week gestation.

BAH! Everyone knows it's 3 weeks, come on!