Warp wrote:
> If because of nothing else, it will be because at some point the
> modern civilization will be so destroyed that it will be incapable of
> continuing the destruction of the ecosystem, which will allow the ecosystem
> to slowly start recuperating (during the next few thousands of years or so).

Exactly.  That and the fact that the resource requirements for a 
smallish population of humans scraping by is vastly less than that for a 
massive global civilization, so even a pretty wrecked environment could 
probably support a small civilization of sorts for an indefinite amount 
of time (although, as you point out, the environment would certainly 
recover in reality).

It's an interesting (and potentially disheartening) thought experiment 
to try to think of what the probable steady-state modes for our 
civilization might be, assuming that we avoid collapse and assuming 
nothing else completely changes the rules (aliens, the singularity, FTL 
travel, etc).  I do think that the rather consistently low birth rates 
in first world countries give some cause for hope here though.

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