7 billion people on Earth!

[ColinJ]

yup, with no lineage to carry on, what's the point? We are after all animals, built to feed and breed and nothing else.

Okay, well my bikes are up for grabs then, and my computers and guitars. (The house is already accounted for.) Details of my exit ceremony will be posted before the event (unless fate gets me first)!

 

[Night Train]

yup, with no lineage to carry on, what's the point? We are after all animals, built to feed and breed and nothing else.

Well, there is more to sentient life then ongoing genes.
I'd reckon on 99% or more of my worth is the knowledge and experience I keep in my head. That is one of the reasons I chose to teach. I have passed on more of worth through teaching and training (and generally talking with people) then my genes alone might have done, and I will continue to do so by all other means.

 

[Arch]

yup, with no lineage to carry on, what's the point? We are after all animals, built to feed and breed and nothing else.

Not all animals get to breed. Non-alpha males may not get much chance. And in many social creatures, only selected females breed, and the rest of the group help to raise the offspring.

Ants are just one rather successful example, ditto bees, and some mammals - in fact I think Meerkats have dominant females, and lesser females may not breed, or if they do, may have their kittens killed.

In biological terms, it helps some of my genes survive if I make sure my sister's children live to breed.

 

[ColinJ]

In biological terms, it helps some of my genes survive if I make sure my sister's children live to breed.

Oh yeah, that's right - so now my nieces and nephew get first dibs on my bikes, computers and guitars!

 

[Fiona N]

That may be true for the western world but the educated in developing countries still want to have large family's like their parents and grandparents had.

I don't think that's true - there doesn't seem to be any disagreement (apart form the Catholic church) about educating girls and women as a way of stopping population growth. In Tanzania, it's striking that areas in the north where girls' literacy has leapt as girls stay on at school until their late teens, the women have 2-3 children, in the less well educated areas further south, it's 7-9 children per woman usually with girls leaving school to have their first child at 16 or so. The same has happened in all the African countries where there's been a real drive to get girls into school until well into their teens. I think they reckon something like one less child for each level/year of schooling a girl gets.

 

[Matthew_T]

Religion is a large complexity which is not doing the world any good.

Most religions are against contraception and all of them are against 'murder' or disposing of people who are not needed nor of any use to anyone on the planet. The only way to make religions happy, and stop the growth of the population is to just not have sex. Which will probably be impossible for the majority of the planet (well me anyway).


The problem we have is that we are the dominant species on this planet. Yes, there are other species which are fully capable of decreasing our population, but we are so safisticated that we are able to distance ourselves between them. If we were more natural and still hunter for some species, then we might be a little more strong minded and a little less on the packed size.


Another thing is that we have a beautiful planet, and we are fully capable of detroying it in order to provide more room for us to live. Just look at the African deserts, some of them are huge but it would be terrible of we got to the level where we would have to destroy that area in order to live.



Wasnt there a planet on Doctor Who where the population had grown so much that there was only room for all the occupants to stand stil without moving?

 

[2PedalsTez]

Have you tried contraception?

Or getting married?...

 

[Deafie]

Viruses and other diseases mutate.

An interesting interview on the subject http://www.wnyc.org/...w-pandemic-age/

 

[XmisterIS]

Let's say for the sake of argument that everyone on the planet of child-producing age and younger constitutes two thirds of the planet's population. If they and the next generation all decided right here at this moment to have only one child, then, roughly speaking, within two generations the population of the world would be halved. Simples.

 

[ColinJ]

Let's say for the sake of argument that everyone on the planet of child-producing age and younger constitutes two thirds of the planet's population. If they and the next generation all decided right here at this moment to have only one child, then, roughly speaking, within two generations the population of the world would be halved. Simples.

Not quite - you'd have to wait for the older generations to die. For 50 years or so, the parents will still be alive while that reduced number of kids are growing up, and they will probably still be alive when the next generation are born too.

 

[XmisterIS]

Not quite - you'd have to wait for the older generations to die. For 50 years or so, the parents will still be alive while that reduced number of kids are growing up, and they will probably still be alive when the next generation are born too.

I have factored that into my calculation.

I thank you.