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118 points blondie9x | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.779s | source
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pfdietz ◴[] No.43673348[source]
Patrick Boyle has looked at causes of decline in the total fertility rate around the world and concluded reduction in the formation of couples (married or not) is a major cause.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ispyUPqqL1c

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inglor_cz ◴[] No.43673405[source]
See also "The Global Collapse of Coupling and Fertility"

https://www.ggd.world/p/the-global-collapse-of-coupling-and

I wonder if the ultimate cost (in lives never born) of technologies like smartphones and Tinder will be. If a significant part of the entire youth cohort never learns to interact with the other sex in the real world, we might be looking at a pandemics of loneliness - and at subsequent global birth deficits in eight to nine figures.

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pfdietz ◴[] No.43673540[source]
I've come to a conclusion that the solution may be somewhat radical.

If coupling is reduced, it should become the norm for women to have and raise children alone, or at least without a male partner. This increases the burden on women, so at the same time the number of children they must support would have to decrease.

This could be achieved technologically, by filtering sperm to remove Y chromosome carrying gametes. As a result, the female/male ratio of newborns would dramatically increase. At the US TFR of 1.66, a 2:1 female to male ratio would be more than enough to maintain the population. Even higher ratios could be imagined, leading to an almost entirely female population.

Social engineering to reach this state is left as an exercise to the science fiction writer.

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BriggyDwiggs42 ◴[] No.43674824[source]
But like… why?
replies(1): >>43676124 #
pfdietz ◴[] No.43676124[source]
I don't want the human population to asymptotically go to zero.
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BriggyDwiggs42 ◴[] No.43676751[source]
That assumes our behaviors don’t shift in response to our environment though. The main issue with birthrates is the very real incoming demographic collapse, not a complete population collapse.
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1. pfdietz ◴[] No.43682360[source]
"We shouldn't consider your solution because there may be other solutions."
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2. BriggyDwiggs42 ◴[] No.43688850[source]
I want the other solutions that will inevitably arise, likely as the sum total of many individuals’ organic actions, because I believe they render your solution unnecessary and would have less unpredictable negative externalities.