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Birth control would go unused. People who crave huge families are going to win out over those who would rather not have huge families. There probably will be s
by burfog 7y ago
Birth control would go unused. People who crave huge families are going to win out over those who would rather not have huge families.
There probably will be some reproductive organ changes to sometimes defeat some forms of birth control, but mostly this will be brain changes. If people actually want birth control they can invent things faster than we can evolve past them, but if people just want kids then it doesn't matter how effective birth control might be.
Non-voluntary measures are possible, but again the evolutionary winners will be the ones who evade that. If the desire for kids is strong enough, people will bribe their way out of mandatory birth control.
- pavel_lishin 7y agoI'm not sure that "craving huge families" is a genetic trait.
- benjohnson 7y agoIt could be cultural trait that survives from generation to generation. I'm an example: I wanted a large amount of children, and taught my children the joys of a larger family. So far, they think along the same lines.
- souprock 7y agoNice! I'm the same, with a dozen kids so far. I don't think one can determine if the trait is or isn't cultural by guessing. How could you possibly know the origin of your own mental preferences? Even political affiliation, which sure looks cultural at first glance, has been shown to be under genetic influence.
- skissane 7y agoSome people with large families do so for religious reasons. (Not everyone, obviously.) There is evidence that there are certain genes which promote religiosity. They don't guarantee it – somewhere out there, there is probably an atheist with lots of religiosity promoting genes, and a devout believer with none of them – but they do make religious belief more likely. People who have large families for religious reasons will pass on both their religious beliefs to their children, and also in many cases their genetic predispositions to greater religiosity. Of course, there is no guarantee that the child will stay in the parent's religion, but so long as the retention rate is decent (say >= 70%) the religious belief (and the genetic predisposition to adopt it) will be spread widely through the population. Even though organised religion isn't looking very healthy at the moment (at least in developed countries), this is reason to believe that its long-term prospects are actually quite bright.
- quotemstr 7y agoAll traits are heritable.
- concordDance 7y agoLike any craving there's no reason it couldn't become one. It's well accepted that many childless women in their 30s will start to crave having children. Someone with a mutation that causes this craving to happen in their 20s as well will have more kids on average.