Speaking of....

[featherynscale]

My father called today to tell me that my sister had another kid. Other people in my family are totally taking up for my non-breedingness.

EDIT: But it's a better story than that. They said that she had not had another kid because she particularly wanted another kid, but that she was allergic to birth control pills. Because, you know, that's your only option.

Comments

You're essentially talking about an Arms Race, Lex.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind overpopulated.

Re: You're essentially talking about an Arms Race, Lex.

[lexpendragon.livejournal.com]

Necessity is the mother of invention.

We've got plenty of surface area for people on this planet, and I see no reason we couldn't spread out to orbital stations, under sea habitats, and off world colonies.

Re: You're essentially talking about an Arms Race, Lex.

[rfunk.livejournal.com]

"Plenty of surface area for people," sure, but not enough room to generate the resources they use, nor dispose of the waste they generate. We're having enough trouble with those two problems now.

As for outer space.... we're still having trouble with the reliability of getting a handful of trained specialists out and back safely. The twin problems of atmosphere and vacuum are rather large.

How about this: Let's send out the people who can't think first.

Re: You're essentially talking about an Arms Race, Lex.

[lexpendragon.livejournal.com]

That would work, but we're also talking about things on a generational scale. Roughly one generation ago, people in Japan had a hell of a time communicating with people in the US, and having a human being walk on the surface of the moon was a pipe dream.

When we find we need something done, it tends to happen quickly. I genuinely think we will not find alternate fuel sources until we're out of petroleum, and we won't recycle in significant scale until we have no place for the trash. The increasing the population means the need shows up sooner, so we'll have to deal with the problems sooner.

Since the population will be increasing either way, adding people who can help would do more good than not adding anyone.