I have always pondered whether it would be better to be born and live now or in the future.
On one hand living in 21st century is quite nice. We have almost everything we want and life is pretty comfortable. And we never know when this might end. It is still quite plausible though not very likely that we might accidentally or intentionally destroy or planet and civilization.
But on the other hand, if everything goes well our future will be very bright. All problems will be solved. We will no longer die or get sick, the robots will do all work for us and AI will protect us from each other.
Therefore there is always small uncertainty which options would be better… until I realized something.
We are the last people to live on Earth
In both cases, if things go well or if they go south, we are the last people on earth. Few more decades of newborns and that’s it.
In the scenario where we will for some reason destroy our planet or kill each other it’s quite obvious, why there will be no more people.
But in alternative bright future scenario the same outcome will occur, and let me explain why.
The future
Two things will happen in the future that are inevitable.
- World’s population will continue to grow and will hit 10 billion in 2050.
- Due to advancement in science and medicine people will live longer.
So now we are in the situation where around 360k people are born per day (same amount as today). But 150k (like today) are no longer dying every day, because they just live on and on past 100 years, and many are closer to 150 and still feeling like they are in their 50s, with no intention to die.
So what to do?
Realistically there are 2 options to reduce population:
- Kill the ones who live.
- Stop giving birth to new ones.
It’s pretty obvious that option 1 is out of the question, since it’s a murder. While option number 2 to is ethically and morally very acceptable.
So there you go. Public sterilization campaigns, an criminalization of giving birth. Problem solved.
Of course this will not be total end to creation of new people, as people will still keep dying for various reasons even though it may happen when they are 200–300 years old. And thus new people are needed or we will one day face extinction. But it will not happen the natural way anymore. We just can’t let the nature fuck up such an important procedure.
The children of the future will be born in the laboratory and made into super humans. Smart, strong, and durable. The ones we will need for human race. No more random breeding with cluster of diseases and defects.
But what about those of us who have baby-fever?
Don’t worry. Just like there will be sex-robots, they will be child-robots.
Just like in Steven Spielberg’s movie Artificial Intelligence A.I. A cute boy or a girl that will always love you, always respect you and treat you like no child treats his parents. Be obedient, be polite and well mannered. No more fights, not more cry, no more punishment, no more worry. Your child will never misbehave, never run from home, never get into an accident, never lie, never steal, never do drugs. It will be the perfect family.