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The solution is not to regress into some Handmaid's Tale etholudditism. Nor must we resign ourselves to demographic collapse. Technology got us into this, but

The solution is not to regress into some Handmaid's Tale etholudditism. Nor must we resign ourselves to demographic collapse. Technology got us into this, but it can get us out. The solution seems inevitable, when you think about it. People should be born in pods, in facilities run by the state. The population level will be directly controlled to whatever's desirable. At that level of biological mastery, many things become possible. People can be sexless, to eliminate whole hosts of problems we deal with today related to sex (like reproductive organ cancer risk, which is significant). People can mature faster. They can be raised in large creche-barracks, also run by the state, instead of having parents who can abuse or neglect them. The zygotes can be genetically curated and be edited free of malformations and made stronger, faster, smarter (think Gattaca). Once they reach adulthood, they'll work to pay off their generation debt through taxes as productive citizens. We will have more keenly harnessed the power of our biological inheritance, like hunter gatherers practicing agriculture instead of leaving our future to chance and animal whim. In the meantime, we just need to make the best of things. But, if we make it to pod clones, all of these problems will be distant memories, like death by gum disease.

mrtksn 4y ago
This is a theme of some prime dystopian literature but yes, it can be a solution if you are into "more from my kind" ideology. But this will have hard time competing with religious sects where they will be pushing to turn men and women into breeders. This is already very popular, that's where the ani women's rights and anti LGBT stuff is coming from. There also would be ideologues who will advocate for reduction of the numbers of others if we can't increase ours. The "more from my kind" ideology comes with its horrors. I don't like it.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  >This is a theme of some prime dystopian literature but yes, it can be a solution if you are into "more from my kind" ideology. The OP suggested making all these new humans genetically engineered to be sexless, so I'm not sure how you got the idea he wants "more from my kind" (GE sexless humans don't exist now); he's obviously talking about making a new race of humans that's genetically engineered to be quite different from modern-day humans, not just with a few improved traits, but some radical differences. As for religious sects, they're not that numerous today, so unless this Brave New World of state-controlled breeding creates a LOT of new converts, those savages could easily be isolated into their own open-air prison in Oklahoma where everyone else can visit them on tourist packages.

mrtksn 4y ago

This is a theme of some prime dystopian literature but yes, it can be a solution if you are into "more from my kind" ideology. But this will have hard time competing with religious sects where they will be pushing to turn men and women into breeders. This is already very popular, that's where the ani women's rights and anti LGBT stuff is coming from. There also would be ideologues who will advocate for reduction of the numbers of others if we can't increase ours. The "more from my kind" ideology comes with its horrors. I don't like it.

midoridensha 4y ago
>This is a theme of some prime dystopian literature but yes, it can be a solution if you are into "more from my kind" ideology. The OP suggested making all these new humans genetically engineered to be sexless, so I'm not sure how you got the idea he wants "more from my kind" (GE sexless humans don't exist now); he's obviously talking about making a new race of humans that's genetically engineered to be quite different from modern-day humans, not just with a few improved traits, but some radical differences. As for religious sects, they're not that numerous today, so unless this Brave New World of state-controlled breeding creates a LOT of new converts, those savages could easily be isolated into their own open-air prison in Oklahoma where everyone else can visit them on tourist packages.