Self-study
Technological improvements will enable food production to increase as populations increase. ████████ █████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██████ █████████ ██████ ████ ███████████ ██ ████ ███ ███████ ████████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ ███ ██ ██████ ████████████ ████ █████████████ ███ ████ ███████████ █ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██████████ █████ ██████████ ███ ██████████████ ██ █████████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ████ ████████ █████████
Summary
As populations increase, technological progress will enable food production to also increase. If societies do not become more centralized, such that the factors contributing to food production can be better coordinated, then increases in food production from technology will be small. Historically, more centralized societies had a greater number of people die if it collapsed. Increasing centralization can therefore worsen the outcome of a societal collapse.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
It is impossible to significantly increase food production from technological gains without also worsening the risk of potential societal collapse. Technological improvements may prevent some, but not all, harms that occur when populations increase.
9.
The statements above, if true, ████ ████████ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
The more centralized █ ███████ ███ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ███████████
This is unsupported because the author states that a greater need for food production may arise due to population increases, not necessarily due to increases in centralization.
b
Not every problem ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ █ ███████████ ███████ █████ ██ █████████ ██ █████████████ █████████████
This is strongly supported because while the technology may help prevent food from running out, it may not prevent a large loss of life if societies become more centralized and then collapse.
c
The rate at █████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████ ████████ ██ ████████ █████████████
This is unsupported because the author gives us no indication on how population changes will progress in the far future.
d
The production of ████ ███ ██ █████████ ████ ██ ████████ ███████████
This is unsupported because the author states that technology may cause food production to increase, not that technological progress is a necessary condition of food production.
e
Societies have become ████ ███████████ ██ ██████████ ███ █████████
This is unsupported because the author only states that societies will have to become more centralized to see major food gains from technological improvements, not that society has become more centralized.