Malthus wrote of an impending descent to subsistence lifestyles. Fritz Haber invented the Haber process, which created fertilizer, and heralded a continuous stream of agricultural innovations that prevented Malthus's visions from coming to pass.
Malthus is often presented as a wicked fool for having espoused these visions which proved so wrong, but what if Fritz Haber's efforts were driven by the writings of Malthus? In this case Malthus could have been a necessary firebrand spurring us out of complacency, no more deserving of derision than those who told of catastrophic failure of computing infrastructure in Y2K, whose visions were likely only made false by the valiant, necessary efforts they inspired.
But I don't know, was he influenced? Or was he going to develop it around then anyway?
