[ExI] Eliminate people to reduce 'warming' and 'save Earth?"

[The Avantguardian]

----- Original Message -----
> From: *Nym* <nymphomation at gmail.com>
> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Cc: 
> Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 8:17 AM
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Eliminate people to reduce 'warming' and 'save Earth?"
> 
> On 13/03/2012, Kevin G Haskell <kgh1kgh2 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Do we need to not just stop, but reduce human population in order to stop
>> the "warming of the Earth in order to save it?"
> 
> Perfectly reasonable suggestion & one that many of us have been
> practising for decades.

The problem with reasoned arguments against procreation is that only reasonable people will abstain from procreating. This has the problem of giving irrational people a huge reproductive advantage. In the parlance of biology, you are *selecting* for stupid people. You really want results? Have the Pope tell people that God has had second thoughts about the "be fruitful and multiply" thing. THAT might do the trick. In the mean time, I feel the need to urge the smart to breed too. Lest everybody thinks they can outsource being smart to China.

>> Your Gaian worshipers at work:
> 
> Linked page contains no mention of  'gaia' nor any mention of
> religion. Neither does the article suggest 'eliminating people'.
> 
> 'Support policies that limit human numbers' does not usually mean
> anything more coercive than educating women and allowing everyone
> access to birth control technology.

Tell me about it. If you want a revolution in the middle-east, then don't smuggle them guns, smuggle them birth-control pills instead. But in the long run, we are going to need more living area plain and simple. I suggest not waiting until the earth is as hot and crowded as a space capsule before we start moving.

Stuart LaForge


"The state that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards, and its fighting by fools." -Thucydides.