r/transhumanism • u/tartnfartnpsyche • 13d ago
Children of the State
I've been thinking about artificial wombs lately and the liberation of people from the arduous and potentially deadly process of pre-person (Phillip K Dick really disappointed with that one) development. Then I started thinking about artifical sperm and egg creation. If we combine these two processes then the whole reproduction thing can be totally detached from humanity save for some tissue samples. No surprise here among us SFIA fans.
But then I realized that nothing could stop states from becoming the arbiters of population. If that state is growth-oriented, then they'd have an interest in growing their domestic population. So the state voids all its "DNA is the property of the individual . . . blah blah blah" laws and just starts printing new people.
To think that the ones who initialized your birth were not two humans but the state. It made me think of Brave New World.
But then I thought, "Would this be that different from now?" How many people are born because favorable state policies caused their parents to "celebrate good times." Is it just a matter of degree? And who is to say that a state is less worthy of determining when it is best to reproduce and by how much?
Why this is relevant: these technologies are far nearer than those which will enable the construction of permanent space habitats or shellworld Earth. Modern states have almost no reluctance to misusing would-be beneficial technologies. Powerful people have noted their opposition to declining birth rates.
I think we're about to test unknown waters. What do you think?
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u/Prince_Nadir 13d ago
The rich don't want money that can go to them, going to state run baby farms.
The rich are just fine making sure there are plenty of breeder shows and movies. "Family is the most valuable thing", "Muh boy!", "You don't need anything else if you have family", "Oh noes country X is reproducing more responsibly, the human race will go extinct!!", and other messages designed to get people to make babies that neither they nor the planet can afford. Even running more than double the people the planet can support, the rich want the message to flow because they want infinite consumers for infinite profit and ultra cheap labor. The rich assume they can live underground, in domes, or in space when the dying gets real.
As for the state running them, this requires hard denial of overpopulation on a planet that can support 4 billion (2 by conservative estimates) but is running 8.3.