I think the grandfather idea is that if you kill 100 people now, and the average person who dies would have had 1 descendant, and the large loss would happen in 100 years (~4 more generations), then the difference in total lives lived between the two scenarios is ~500, not 900. If the number of descendants per person is above ~1.2, then burying the waste means population after the larger loss in 100 years is actually higher than if you processed it now.
Obviously I’m also ignoring a whole lot of things here that I do think matter, as well.
And of course, as you pointed out in your reply to my comment above, it’s probably better to ignore the scenario description and just look at it as a pure choice along the lines of something like “Is it better to reduce total population by 900 if the deaths happen in 100 years instead of now?”
I think the grandfather idea is that if you kill 100 people now, and the average person who dies would have had 1 descendant, and the large loss would happen in 100 years (~4 more generations), then the difference in total lives lived between the two scenarios is ~500, not 900. If the number of descendants per person is above ~1.2, then burying the waste means population after the larger loss in 100 years is actually higher than if you processed it now.
Obviously I’m also ignoring a whole lot of things here that I do think matter, as well.
And of course, as you pointed out in your reply to my comment above, it’s probably better to ignore the scenario description and just look at it as a pure choice along the lines of something like “Is it better to reduce total population by 900 if the deaths happen in 100 years instead of now?”