10 thoughts on “Free Will, Children, And The Great Filter”
It’s a huge problem.
The world has never been over populated- anywhere.
Over population is always been about “other people” having too many people. India in terms of a theory would be what you might point to as over population- and some tried to “lessen the problem” and the effort was simply all evil. China was likewise “helped” and that was more obviously evil. India nor China never had a over population problem. It had poor govt problem- and they still do, as do all nations.
But India just send lunar lander to south pole- India doing just fine, and could be the next superpower.
But if don’t continue to ignore the problem, things will be fine. It depends on women. Women have always been running the show, they just have continue asserting themselves and their interests.
The concern is absurd. We haven’t even peaked in population yet and people are worrying about extinction from non-breeding? My take is that overpopulation is a real problem. Sure, we have the resources to support the expected 11 billion or so people, but only as long as things run smoothly enough. We need more of a cushion than that.
Let’s drop a few billion first before we start to worry about this. And keep in mind that it’s not that hard to explode in population – just create a population of poor people and take rights away from women. I imagine with mechanical wombs and such, it’ll probably be very easy to generate an overpopulation problem.
It does seem that too many of the arguments that a population crash is bad are based on the idea that all the various Ponzi schemes need more suckers to keep them, and the pseudo-elites running them, going strong. I won’t be around to see it, but I would expect civilizations will get along just fine with fewer people. But if your worldview requires you to be an aristocrat with apparant power over a huge underclass consisting of illiterate peasants, urban thugs, and cannon fodder, things would look bad.
It also needs to be noted that this depopulation is being done voluntarily. Groups of undesirables aren’t being rounded up and force-sterilized or murdered outright. Those groups and places that can resist the current self-destructive insanities (gender-bending, climate weather, “migration”, “green” policies, etc.) will come out better than before.
Agreed, but that’s not all there is to it, unless you count aging as a Ponzi scheme. Even if everyone is frugal and saves lots of money to provide for themselves when they are too old to work, it depends on there being an economy capable of producing what they need. A severely upside-down demographic means that there just aren’t enough producers to supply the consumers, which leads to hyperinflation.
We’re a ways from there yet, but it’s not something to scoff at. I’m hoping that AI fills the gap, but we’re a ways from that as well. Even money which comes sooner.
A severely upside-down demographic means that there just aren’t enough producers to supply the consumers, which leads to hyperinflation.
I think that would have to be a really, really lop-sided situation for hyperinflation to be a thing. I think the loons who want to mandate extremely short work weeks are more of a danger there. And when I look at history, the real hyperinflation threat is from government money printers.
Japan is not waiting:
–While the population of Japan is rapidly aging, the government of Japan is implementing various measures to create an “Age-free society in which people of all ages can make use of their motivation and abilities depending on their hope.”–
US and Canada are allowing more immigration- Canada seems far more successful- and they don’t a problem.
Depends on who’s immigrating, as Canada found out.
The buy-in citizens that invest $1-mil (from Asia, mostly) are not much of a problem (except driving in BC). The refugee immigrants (from Africa, mostly) are a big problem – in Quebec and Ontario.
It bugs me that immigrants and migrants are the people who do the hard and dirty jobs in this country. We as a country like to boast a lot about self reliance. In the home building and construction trades and produce farming I see little of it… WTF? In ancient Rome, near its fall, it had a fairly well educated populace that wouldn’t stoop to lowly service in the legions. Then came the Visigoths… As I said before, an entrance requirement for an elite college should include the requirement of having a master’s license in a trade that requires an apprenticeship. Then if the toilets failed at Harvard, the student body could grab some tools and fix them on their own.
Maybe when we settle Mars we will get this essential do-over, out of sheer necessity…
Importing a replacement population isn’t much of a “solution.”
It’s a huge problem.
The world has never been over populated- anywhere.
Over population is always been about “other people” having too many people. India in terms of a theory would be what you might point to as over population- and some tried to “lessen the problem” and the effort was simply all evil. China was likewise “helped” and that was more obviously evil. India nor China never had a over population problem. It had poor govt problem- and they still do, as do all nations.
But India just send lunar lander to south pole- India doing just fine, and could be the next superpower.
But if don’t continue to ignore the problem, things will be fine. It depends on women. Women have always been running the show, they just have continue asserting themselves and their interests.
The concern is absurd. We haven’t even peaked in population yet and people are worrying about extinction from non-breeding? My take is that overpopulation is a real problem. Sure, we have the resources to support the expected 11 billion or so people, but only as long as things run smoothly enough. We need more of a cushion than that.
Let’s drop a few billion first before we start to worry about this. And keep in mind that it’s not that hard to explode in population – just create a population of poor people and take rights away from women. I imagine with mechanical wombs and such, it’ll probably be very easy to generate an overpopulation problem.
It does seem that too many of the arguments that a population crash is bad are based on the idea that all the various Ponzi schemes need more suckers to keep them, and the pseudo-elites running them, going strong. I won’t be around to see it, but I would expect civilizations will get along just fine with fewer people. But if your worldview requires you to be an aristocrat with apparant power over a huge underclass consisting of illiterate peasants, urban thugs, and cannon fodder, things would look bad.
It also needs to be noted that this depopulation is being done voluntarily. Groups of undesirables aren’t being rounded up and force-sterilized or murdered outright. Those groups and places that can resist the current self-destructive insanities (gender-bending, climate weather, “migration”, “green” policies, etc.) will come out better than before.
Agreed, but that’s not all there is to it, unless you count aging as a Ponzi scheme. Even if everyone is frugal and saves lots of money to provide for themselves when they are too old to work, it depends on there being an economy capable of producing what they need. A severely upside-down demographic means that there just aren’t enough producers to supply the consumers, which leads to hyperinflation.
We’re a ways from there yet, but it’s not something to scoff at. I’m hoping that AI fills the gap, but we’re a ways from that as well. Even money which comes sooner.
A severely upside-down demographic means that there just aren’t enough producers to supply the consumers, which leads to hyperinflation.
I think that would have to be a really, really lop-sided situation for hyperinflation to be a thing. I think the loons who want to mandate extremely short work weeks are more of a danger there. And when I look at history, the real hyperinflation threat is from government money printers.
Japan is not waiting:
–While the population of Japan is rapidly aging, the government of Japan is implementing various measures to create an “Age-free society in which people of all ages can make use of their motivation and abilities depending on their hope.”–
US and Canada are allowing more immigration- Canada seems far more successful- and they don’t a problem.
Depends on who’s immigrating, as Canada found out.
The buy-in citizens that invest $1-mil (from Asia, mostly) are not much of a problem (except driving in BC). The refugee immigrants (from Africa, mostly) are a big problem – in Quebec and Ontario.
It bugs me that immigrants and migrants are the people who do the hard and dirty jobs in this country. We as a country like to boast a lot about self reliance. In the home building and construction trades and produce farming I see little of it… WTF? In ancient Rome, near its fall, it had a fairly well educated populace that wouldn’t stoop to lowly service in the legions. Then came the Visigoths… As I said before, an entrance requirement for an elite college should include the requirement of having a master’s license in a trade that requires an apprenticeship. Then if the toilets failed at Harvard, the student body could grab some tools and fix them on their own.
Maybe when we settle Mars we will get this essential do-over, out of sheer necessity…
Importing a replacement population isn’t much of a “solution.”