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There has been various research about Earth's carrying capacity. The numbers are controversial but it shouldn't be controversial that there is _some_ limit. I

There has been various research about Earth's carrying capacity. The numbers are controversial but it shouldn't be controversial that there is _some_ limit. I think we are going to have to adapt to a post-growth world. Or maybe things will grow in other ways. I am not worried about declining birth rates. It's not like we are heading for a "Children of Men" scenario. The population will stabilize before it goes to zero. Or maybe we will just grow people in vats.

chromanoid 6y ago
> Or maybe we will just grow people in vats. Who will raise the people who were made in vats? Which is the real problem here, not who reproduces.
- barry-cotter 6y ago
  Pregnancy and childbirth are not wonderful experiences and there would definitely be an uptick in children per woman if you could get a baby without carrying it inside you for nine months and then pushing it out. How large the uptick would be I don’t know.
  - chromanoid 6y ago
    > Pregnancy and childbirth are not wonderful experiences I would say it depends. My wife would not want to miss it. Especially her first birth was indeed a wonderful experience. The second was too fast but still a wonderful experience. Why children per woman? In such a world where humans grow in vats, it would be children per person...
arvinsim 6y ago
It's not about population, it's about culture.
rayiner 6y ago
> I think we are going to have to adapt to a post-growth world. Or maybe things will grow in other ways. I am not worried about declining birth rates. It's not like we are heading for a "Children of Men" scenario. I'm not talking about endless growth. I'm talking about simply maintaining existing societies. The fertility rate in South Korea is now below 1. That's a society that's basically gone within three generations. > The population will stabilize before it goes to zero. Right--so what does society and culture look like then? > Or maybe we will just grow people in vats. We can't even fix male pattern baldness for god's sake.
- blackguardx 6y ago
  >Right--so what does society and culture look like then? Culture and societies change. No one can predict the future. If the population of South Korea goes down to 49 million (from 50 million today), why does that automatically mean that they will lose their culture? >We can't even fix male pattern baldness for god's sake. I'm sure we will fix that before the population gets to zero!
- barry-cotter 6y ago
  > We can't even fix male pattern baldness for god's sake. Elon Musk used to be bald. Now he’s not.

chromanoid 6y ago

> Or maybe we will just grow people in vats. Who will raise the people who were made in vats? Which is the real problem here, not who reproduces.

barry-cotter 6y ago
Pregnancy and childbirth are not wonderful experiences and there would definitely be an uptick in children per woman if you could get a baby without carrying it inside you for nine months and then pushing it out. How large the uptick would be I don’t know.
- chromanoid 6y ago
  > Pregnancy and childbirth are not wonderful experiences I would say it depends. My wife would not want to miss it. Especially her first birth was indeed a wonderful experience. The second was too fast but still a wonderful experience. Why children per woman? In such a world where humans grow in vats, it would be children per person...

arvinsim 6y ago

It's not about population, it's about culture.

rayiner 6y ago

> I think we are going to have to adapt to a post-growth world. Or maybe things will grow in other ways. I am not worried about declining birth rates. It's not like we are heading for a "Children of Men" scenario. I'm not talking about endless growth. I'm talking about simply maintaining existing societies. The fertility rate in South Korea is now below 1. That's a society that's basically gone within three generations. > The population will stabilize before it goes to zero. Right--so what does society and culture look like then? > Or maybe we will just grow people in vats. We can't even fix male pattern baldness for god's sake.

blackguardx 6y ago
>Right--so what does society and culture look like then? Culture and societies change. No one can predict the future. If the population of South Korea goes down to 49 million (from 50 million today), why does that automatically mean that they will lose their culture? >We can't even fix male pattern baldness for god's sake. I'm sure we will fix that before the population gets to zero!
barry-cotter 6y ago
> We can't even fix male pattern baldness for god's sake. Elon Musk used to be bald. Now he’s not.