Population and Technology

About one thing that's great about the battletech forums is the regular amounts of brain fodder available that's tough to get in any other fandom.

The ongoing discussion on populations and technology levels is an excellent example. Simply put: what is the bare population required to sustain a certain level of technology? Can a population of say... 5 million, with no outside trade but with access to ample resources, maintain early 21st century technology, with all the computers, cellular networks, etc? How many people to sustain Bronze Age technology?
http://forums.classicbattletech.com/index.php/topic,28546.0.html

A related link that is somewhat relevant to the discussion:
http://www.lagriffedulion.f2s.com/sft2.htm

There are links in the above two pages, which provide further brain fodder.

TWG