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What if humans collectively decided to not have any new kids anymore and maximize quality of life for the humans that already are living on planet earth? I wou
by TekMol 7y ago
What if humans collectively decided to not have any new kids anymore and maximize quality of life for the humans that already are living on planet earth?
I would love to see this thought experiment thought out in detail. What decisions would we make? Where would we invest? Would climate control still be an issue?
- malvosenior 7y agoHumanity would die out. Doesn’t seem very useful.
- rficcaglia 7y agoIt would be to the other 99.9999% of species. Maybe E Coli amd Herpes beasties get the shaft.
- pepega 7y agoYou should watch the anime Parasyte
- hyperbovine 7y agoDefine useful.
- malvosenior 7y agoKeeping with the primary objective of every living species (survival and reproduction).
- ptah 7y agoi think it would lead to humanity's extinction as the humans that are around now will eventually die
- kzrdude 7y agoWe could start with a global two children policy. But it's extremely hard to go even there. Two because we should have second chances, and alone children are less socially adapted than those with siblings.
- kgwgk 7y agoThe global fertility rate is below 2.5 children per woman today. We're almost there.
- martythemaniak 7y agoChildren Of Men is a great movie on this topic, you can give it a watch. But I'm genuinely curious about people that think like you. Okay, so everyone dies by about 2100, then what? What is the point of basically anything?
- TekMol 7y agoWhat is the point if humans exist another 1000 years? Or does it have to be a million years? How many years does it need to breed meaning?
- malvosenior 7y agoEnough that we can spread humanity into space and/or develop sentient technology.
- martythemaniak 7y agoForever. I mean, life is a natural consequence of the nature and physics of the universe, and human civilization is a natural consequence of life processes. Existence and progression is the meaning.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago> Forever. Already failed then. Scenario 1) The universe will end in heat death, the big rip, or other similar cosmic catastrophe. Scenario 2) The universe continues on for infinity, giving plenty of time for even the most ridiculously unlikely of events to occur. It is therefore inevitable that humanity or whatever progeny it might have will still ultimately cease to exist.
- kazagistar 7y agoScenario 2 isn't actually so clear. Over time, humanity can decrease its suceptability to being wiped out by unlikely events at a faster rate then the events themselves over time.
- rficcaglia 7y agoI love Childhood’s End [0] Also there’s this : http://vhemt.org/ http://vhemt.org/ [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood%27s_End https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood%27s_End
- alistproducer2 7y agoA gigantic "no thanks" to vhemt.org. Thanks for the recommendation on the book. I'm gonna pick that up.
- jessaustin 7y agoA good investment would be armaments and ammunition. The only way such inhumane rules could be satisfied would be through large-scale violent enforcement. "Collectively decided" is a euphemism.
- imtringued 7y agoAnd Mars colony technology. We can simply use it on earth.
- adrianN 7y agoSince the large majority of all humans will still be alive in twenty years the climate will still be ruined even if no more children were born starting today.
- TekMol 7y agoHow do you know that? There are over 100 million kids born per year. So after one year we would already have less emissions caused by 100 million people. After 20 years we would be 2 billion people less. That's quite significant.
- adrianN 7y agoWe need to be carbon neutral in twenty years. 2 billion people less (most of them from poor countries!) are not enough.
- vgoh1 7y agoFirst of all, humans are the only sentient beings in the known universe. Second, most humans have children because that is maximizing their quality of life - it is a living organisms instinct to replicate, and (most) humans are no different. If you feel different, check the stats on how many have children, and think, you may just be in a bubble. Humans have endured millennia of starvation and disease, try to keep our upcoming hardships in perspective. Beyond reasons why it would not maximize our quality of life, collectively deciding to not have kids just would not do any good. You are taking people 'like you' out of the gene pool, while people who choose to not go with the collective will procreate.
- TekMol 7y agomost humans have children because that is maximizing their quality of life Citation needed. I have read several studies about which factors improve quality of life. I cannot remember a single one that had "children" in the list of factors that significantly improve happiness.
- Scarblac 7y agoHow about "being a grandparent"?
- ljcn 7y agoJust yesterday - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/children-happiness-study-parents-stress-money-christoph-becker-at-heidelberg-university-a9068926.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/children-happines... Parents with grown-up children report being happier than those without children (but those with younger children are the least happy).
- TekMol 7y agoFirst paragraph: Parents often say their children bring them joy but most research suggests kids cause financial worry, stress and anxiety. Second paragraph: However, the latest research suggests children do actually make people happier – but only once they’ve left home. That is in line with what most studies come up with as one of the central aspects of a happy life: Having friends. I would think that kids kinda fall in that category after they left home.
- plevexier 7y agoselfishness + nihilism, what a program...
- Scarblac 7y agoIt would change fuck all. The regions where there is still a lot of population growth (e.g. Africa) are so far behind in qualify of life compared to the massively CO2-emitting countries that any attempt to improve their qualify of life means we continue to increase the CO2 output for decades more. Anyway, there is no chance that humans will collectively decide anything, least of all that.
- Dumblydorr 7y agoWe rely on a mixture of generations in society, you need young healthy taxpayers to support the elders who raised them.
- GrayTextIsTruth 7y agowhat if humans collectively aligned with populist ideologies and stoped caring about equality, democracy, capitalism, materialism, consumerism? systems that maximize human rights and equality were created in a vacuum and ignore external side-effects.