Population 7 billion. Changes ahead. (page 7)

Terry

If the solution to over-population is for people to stop having babies, it is an unworkable solution.

Farmers are paid subsidies for NOT PLANTING certain crops.

How about paying the poor for NOT creating pregnancies that lead to impoverished children?

That is enough of a Big Government entitlement program to be embraced by the Left, isn't it?

The poor, the ignorant and the underprivileged could earn a buck each time they don't F**K!

It could be handled the same way Unemployment payments are.

You apply for benefits over the telephone and answer a series of pre-recorded questions by pressing the answer buttons.

Q: How many times did you NOT engage in pregnancy-causing sexual activity during the previous month?

A: Beep Beep Beep

Q: Were you able to engage in sexual activity of this nature unhampered in any way by illness or other hinderment?

A: Beep

Q:Are you presently available for Sex?

A: Bleep!

The money would then be Deposited in the person's checking account without incurring printing or mailing costs!

Compare the current expenses, burdens and future consequences of prolific over-population with this monetary reward system and you'll quickly see how popular it could become.

Need some extra cash to pay your cable bill? Just DON'T F**k this week and let the government take care of the rest!!

BurnTheShips

From memory Kurzweil argues the hybrid human is already in development. Technological solutions to augment or replace sight and hearing are working today. We've all seen the astonishing success of artificial limbs - the IAAF have already banned augmented humans from competing against non-augmented. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Pistorius

I think the main distinction is synthetic versus artificial. We done artificial for a long time, such as artificial hearts. We will however, be able to grow eyes. Regrow hearing organs. Regrow hearts. Regrow livers. Regrow kidneys. Regrow everything.

We are already regrowing functioning rat hearts in Minnesota. Using profusion decellurarization, they take a rat heart and strip it down to the extracellular matrix. They have found a detergent that can do this while allowing the organ "skeleton" to retain all the cytokines and other biomarkers that signal stem cells where they are in the organ, and what they are supposed to turn into. They then infuse the matrix with stem cells, and grow a new heart in a bioreactor. It actually works in rats. I think we will be able to regrow human hearts in 10 years.

I would much rather have my own heart (or eyes or whatever) back rather than a prosthesis. I think most people would agree.

Regarding boosting human cognition, I agree. However, I think this can be done biologically, rather than cybernetically. And a brain computer interface would be nice, but I suspect some sort of a cybernetic middleman would be necessary (unless we can grow an interface organ).

Now if I had an augmented memory I wouldn't have to rely on my poor ole' flesh only model to recall Kurzweil's arguments

Nootropics are in the works!

Here is a good one you probably partake in every day. ;-)

BTS

beksbks

That is enough of a Big Government entitlement program to be embraced by the Left, isn't it?

Sigh

Mad Sweeney

Why is it that concern about over population is automatically met with accusations of fear-mongering or being pro euthanasia or Illuminati crazy?

Because too many of the people who vocally express concern about overpopulation are fear-mongering, pro-euthanasia, Illuminati crazies. Not all are, of course, but the loudest people in pretty much any group are the extremist wackos. Look at how Terry was attacked in this thread for trying to inject some reality and balance. Maybe BizzyBee isn't an extremist wacko but what is clear from the ad hominem "you are a simple-minded fool" post is that he/she is at the very least accustomed to debating with extremist wackos and has taken up some of their techniques of non-discussion.

beksbks

Disingenuous at the very least MS

but what is clear from the ad hominem "you are a simple-minded fool"

What she actually said was

If indeed those are your positions, one could conclude that you are a simple-minded fool.

Because too many of the people who vocally express concern about overpopulation are fear-mongering, pro-euthanasia, Illuminati crazies. Not all are, of course, but the loudest people in pretty much any group are the extremist wackos.

Hmmm

BurnTheShips

Thanks for pointing out the weasel words, Beksbks. She doesn't even have the ovarian fortitude to call someone a fool straight up.

BTS

Terry

Populations of animals and insects proliferate and wane in natural cycles of balance. They always have.

What makes humanity actually imagine they are immune to this "corrective balance."?

99.99 per cent of every species that has ever existed has become extinct. And now we are on top.

At every stage in every era somebody or something has been on top.

Ebb and flow and flux.

For humanity so far it has been war, plague, famine and industrial technology which have delayed vast over-population.

These may seem exoteric governances to us because WE cause them. But, governances they are!

Within the last century you had the Spanish Influenza, WWI, WWII, Korea, Viet Nam; the gas chambers of Hitler and the cold political exterminations of Stalin and Mao. Millions and millions and millions of artificially caused deaths. Each death created a space for new life.............

This is nature: cold, inexorable and balanced.

BurnTheShips

What makes humanity actually imagine they are immune to this "corrective balance."?

None of the other species has a rapidly evolving technology. We would never have been able to sustain the current population using old agricultural techniques. We would have been killed back by plague if it wasn't for modern medicine. The main constraint, therefore, is not external. It is within ourselves.

Biological evolution took back seat to cultural evolution a long time ago, in human terms. Science/tech are now the next phase. When/if the Kurzweilian singularity hits, there will be no real limit to growth. I think there are no real limits even without it. Malthusian prophecies always get falsified, in the long run.

BTS

Mad Sweeney

Way to miss the point so you can focus on protecting your team, beksbks. There was nothing disingenuous about my post at all. As Burn brings out, the weasel-words make Bizzy's ad hominem even LESS useful as a rational discussion. It isn't as if I hid them - they're here in the thread for everyone to see - they simply weren't important to the point I was making, which still stands.

Anyway, it's off the point of the thread, so I don't think further bickering over it is worthwhile.

Terry

Biological evolution took back seat to cultural evolution a long time ago, in human terms

I would not place such a distinction between Bird and Nest if I were you.

The bird is nature...but, why isn't the technology of the bird nest also nature?

Man's productive intelligence (or folly) is an extension of his own nature, is it not?

Evolution is evolution and that is LIFE as an ongoing process.

Population 7 billion. Changes ahead.

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