Re:If cryonics suddenly worked, we'd need to face the fallout
by xyzzyz on Thursday April 28, 2016 @05:56PM
(#11592203)
I don't see it the same way. Being immortal and fertile all the time could completely change the baby-making dynamics. What if people have fewer children because they can focus on their career earlier in their lives? Were they immortal, they could start making children while they're 100 years old and settled.
Re:If cryonics suddenly worked, we'd need to face the fallout
by danieltillett on Thursday April 28, 2016 @06:48PM
(#11592440)
I suspect that we would see a decline in the number of children born rather than an increase. If you could put off indefinitely having children many would do so until they died of some non-ageing related cause.
Re:If cryonics suddenly worked, we'd need to face the fallout
by sooheon on Friday April 29, 2016 @09:22AM
(#11595504)
I can also conjecture about the plausible couple who, having had their beloved son and daughter leave the nest, and with visits and calls growing less frequent, decide to go for round two.
That's not nearly as much of a problem as people think it would be.
About 60 million people die per year, and about two-thirds of that comes from age-related causes.
Something like 75 million babies are born each year, and that number is gradually but constantly shrinking as standards of living rise and people have fewer children.
The most likely result in a world of reliable anti-aging treatments would be a gradual slowing of new births to a trickle long before the reduced death rate ever became a real logistical problem.