Imagine you are an AI.

HAL9000

Honorable
So, you are a super intelligent AI.

And the World has a problem that must be addressed.

..The problem is 'We foresee that in the future there will not be anough resources to keep the world going. What will be our best approach to averting this catastrophe ?..

Ok, what do you think the AI suggests, and why ?
 

coubob

Celestial
The movie The Last Chase (1981) comes to mind for the future, I think we had means and ways along time ago that could`ve helped the world from such things but people like $$$$ more. and if i was an A.I. the answer would be Nothing at All. cause one should lay in the bed they make.
 

HAL9000

Honorable
The movie The Last Chase (1981) comes to mind for the future, I think we had means and ways along time ago that could`ve helped the world from such things but people like $$$$ more. and if i was an A.I. the answer would be Nothing at All. cause one should lay in the bed they make.

But most of us do not make the bed. It is made by a few at the top.

However, I am hoping the AI will suggest something better that 'y'all can go the hell in a handcart for all I care'.
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
It is made by a few at the top

Feeling conspiracy minded this morning and will have to go put the tape X on my window to signal my source.

AI eh? A non-human answer? Kill three or four billion people and there will be plenty of resources to go around. Maybe with a virus.
 

HAL9000

Honorable
No need to kill people off. But I do suspect the AI would look at the problem this way..

Not enough resources ? So you need to increase the resources or decrease the consumers.

As the amount of land available is finite, then you will have to reduce the consumers.

Quite easily done. Sterilise all women after the second child. This, plus natural losses due to accidents, disease etc, will gradually bring the World population down to manageable numbers.

The children of these two child families will also have better lives.

Automation is making the human race pretty much redundant from the point of view of required labour.
The lower numbers will allow people to still have a good life but not need to spend as much of it working; unless they want to.

Remember, there is only one Earth.

Ok. humans. The ball is in your court.
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
There was an episode of the X-Files Je Souhaite in which Mulder winds up in possession of a genie that grants him three wishes. When he asks for world peace she eliminates everybody. An AI can't grant wishes but they might not come up with a user friendly solution.

Water finds its level and so do populations that grow out of control.
 

HAL9000

Honorable
There was an episode of the X-Files Je Souhaite in which Mulder winds up in possession of a genie that grants him three wishes. When he asks for world peace she eliminates everybody. An AI can't grant wishes but they might not come up with a user friendly solution.

Water finds its level and so do populations that grow out of control.

The problem is that there will be general carnage long before that happens.

Nature may need a helping hand.
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
On a very different level state environmental conservation agencies take many factors into account before issuing hunting and fishing permits. It's about controlling a population to ensure its survival, to keep starvation and disease at bey and to avoid destroying the resources of an area. Many object to it for all sorts of reasons but it actually is intended and used for very practical and humane purposes.

Humans though, obviously a different story. China's one child policy may have long term ramifications. In that I think there's a correlation to carbon emissions and all that - there you have one large populous country that made that draconian rule while their neighbors grow at almost exponential rates without restriction. How can you do one thing while your neighbor does another and it affects you both?
 

JahaRa

Noble
Quite easily done. Sterilise all women after the second child. This, plus natural losses due to accidents, disease etc, will gradually bring the World population down to manageable numbers.
Based on this I assume you are a man. It would be easier to sterilize all men after they have fathered 2 children. Or sterilize both genders after each person has procreated twice. Damn Roman Empire mentality always making women responsible for everything.
 

HAL9000

Honorable
Based on this I assume you are a man. It would be easier to sterilize all men after they have fathered 2 children. Or sterilize both genders after each person has procreated twice. Damn Roman Empire mentality always making women responsible for everything.

It never fails to amaze me the number of people who can't see the error in that.

So I'll explain it again.

Here is the scenario.

You have two islands.

One has 100 women and 1 man.

The other has 100 men and 1 woman.

If all the men on both islands have sex with all the available women on their respective islands, Which island can produce the most babies in one year. ?

Roman empire mentality has nothing to do with it. It's just numbers.

And just think about the advantage the women will then have,

They can go screw whoever they want with zero chance of getting pregnant.
Promiscuity never looked so attractive.
 

JahaRa

Noble
It never fails to amaze me the number of people who can't see the error in that.

So I'll explain it again.

Here is the scenario.

You have two islands.

One has 100 women and 1 man.

The other has 100 men and 1 woman.

If all the men on both islands have sex with all the available women on their respective islands, Which island can produce the most babies in one year. ?

Roman empire mentality has nothing to do with it. It's just numbers.

And just think about the advantage the women will then have,

They can go screw whoever they want with zero chance of getting pregnant.
Promiscuity never looked so attractive.
But it is easier and less expensive to sterilize men than women. I understand your 100 women and 1 man vs 100 men and one women, but it is irrelevant to my point of always looking at women for solutions. Birth control for men exists but the number of side effects (very few compared to birth control for women) were too many to approve it, yet if you saw the list of side effects for birth control for women you would not want any woman you love to take those pills or use those implants etc. (if you are a caring, thinking person).
 

HAL9000

Honorable
But it is easier and less expensive to sterilize men than women. I understand your 100 women and 1 man vs 100 men and one women, but it is irrelevant to my point of always looking at women for solutions. Birth control for men exists but the number of side effects (very few compared to birth control for women) were too many to approve it, yet if you saw the list of side effects for birth control for women you would not want any woman you love to take those pills or use those implants etc. (if you are a caring, thinking person).

I'm not talking about the pill, but about sterilisation.
The point here is that the husband (or in fact any bloke who wishes to have sex with the woman) can get snipped. But what is to stop someone else making her pregnant ? either willingly or in a rape situation.

If sterilised, she then knows she is safe from future pregnancy. May have to be a bit careful about STDs though in this new found freedom.
It is future pregnancies that will dictate the future, not the number of times a woman has sex.
 

JahaRa

Noble
I'm not talking about the pill, but about sterilisation.
The point here is that the husband (or in fact any bloke who wishes to have sex with the woman) can get snipped. But what is to stop someone else making her pregnant ? either willingly or in a rape situation.

If sterilised, she then knows she is safe from future pregnancy. May have to be a bit careful about STDs though in this new found freedom.
It is future pregnancies that will dictate the future, not the number of times a woman has sex.
I know that, I was using that as an example of misogyny in the way people think about solutios to problems in the Roman Empire aka 1st world nations ( U.S., UK, Germany...)

You made a comment that triggered a diatribe from me and now you are trying to make like I misunderstood you, I didn't, I was pointing out a common fallacy in thinking that you fell into.

Sterilization is not an answer to the problem, if it were, China would be in better shape after 50 years of forcing women to have abortions, making second or more children illegal, etc. Now they are having another problem, the pendulum has swung to another extreme.

And you cannot presume to understand why a woman gets pregnant, as if it is always her choice, which it isn't, it take two.
 

HAL9000

Honorable
I know that, I was using that as an example of misogyny in the way people think about solutios to problems in the Roman Empire aka 1st world nations ( U.S., UK, Germany...)

You made a comment that triggered a diatribe from me and now you are trying to make like I misunderstood you, I didn't, I was pointing out a common fallacy in thinking that you fell into.

Sterilization is not an answer to the problem, if it were, China would be in better shape after 50 years of forcing women to have abortions, making second or more children illegal, etc. Now they are having another problem, the pendulum has swung to another extreme.

And you cannot presume to understand why a woman gets pregnant, as if it is always her choice, which it isn't, it take two.

I completely agree. In many countries the woman has little say in the matter. That is why the 'two child' rule would be a good thing for every one.

I think that, at some level, you are misunderstanding what I am getting at.

The point is to drastically reduce the World population by, what you must agree, is a quite humane method,
Far better than letting us all go to Hell in a superheated handcart. Or have millions die in food riots when the food dries up. Or even in the slaughter of war that will inevitably come from an over crowded planet.

Maybe you could suggest a better way ?

Or don't you think there is a problem ?
 

JahaRa

Noble
I completely agree. In many countries the woman has little say in the matter. That is why the 'two child' rule would be a good thing for every one.

I think that, at some level, you are misunderstanding what I am getting at.

The point is to drastically reduce the World population by, what you must agree, is a quite humane method,
Far better than letting us all go to Hell in a superheated handcart. Or have millions die in food riots when the food dries up. Or even in the slaughter of war that will inevitably come from an over crowded planet.

Maybe you could suggest a better way ?

Or don't you think there is a problem ?
Actually, I don't think the population is the real problem. People in the first world nations waste food that people in 3rd world countries could use. It is Not population that is the problem. Like someone said, nature has a way of controlling population. The real problem is pollution and waste, landfills, trash being dumped in the oceans, over use of plastics, excess in many other areas in parts of the world.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
This video has some interesting elements however the AI related segment begins at about the 7 minute mark...

 

HAL9000

Honorable
Actually, I don't think the population is the real problem. People in the first world nations waste food that people in 3rd world countries could use. It is Not population that is the problem. Like someone said, nature has a way of controlling population. The real problem is pollution and waste, landfills, trash being dumped in the oceans, over use of plastics, excess in many other areas in parts of the world.

So you are in favour of a few global catastrophes, unprecedented fires, maybe a plague or two. Some major earthquakes followed by tsunami ?

All natures way of reducing the population.

Is this the kind of thing ?

If so, you have two out the three happening right now.

Maybe my idea would be kinder.
 

dr wu

Noble
It might sound harsh but I am not against population control but I think it needs to be done fairly and humanely...whatever that comes to. In the future if things don't change there will be no other solution imho.
 

JahaRa

Noble
So you are in favour of a few global catastrophes, unprecedented fires, maybe a plague or two. Some major earthquakes followed by tsunami ?

All natures way of reducing the population.

Is this the kind of thing ?

If so, you have two out the three happening right now.

Maybe my idea would be kinder.
I didn't say that. I said that population is not THE problem. What I am in favor of is humans taking responsibility for the messes they have made all over the planet and at least attempting to clean them up. Like I said, climate change is not due to over population, it is due to excesses of the first world countries that are run by corporations who don't care about survival, only about money and control of resources. There are plenty of resources to support the current population but most of those resources are used and controlled by a very few on the planet.
 
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