Economist Robert L. Heilbroner '40 told 250 people at MIT yesterday that population growth and resource depletion in the long-term future will pose a "real threat to the present way of life on which social and political institutions have been based."

Heilbroner, a professor at the New School of Social Research, said that to "disrecommend" a course of industrial development would be "folly," but that "in the future such a course is very dangerous." Facing this dilemma, he said, "the individual must make his own choice."

Future scarcity will threaten the "sweetnesses of extraordinary license and liberty" characteristic of our present society, Heilbroner warned. "One must face up to these problems," he continued, "with whatever degree of courage and honesty one can."

Heilbroner, who is the author of seven books, among them "The Worldly Philosophers," said, "The underlying spirit that has moved Western man to his successes is Promethean. The Promethean model has served its day and purpose. A new mood will have to take its place, one of Atlas, whose characteristic will be perseverance."