# A new start, on a new Earth

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-start-on-a-new-earth/709467>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 10, 2015, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-start-on-a-new-earth/709467 "2015-01-10T13:34:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-start-on-a-new-earth/709467/101 "2015-01-25T17:18:42Z")

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> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> Again, I must ask, are you going to re-introduce infanticide?

No. As pointed out upthread there wont’ be either the capacity or need for modern birth control at first. But hopefully our colonists will have our history as an example, and avoid the pre-industrial social more of treating women as breeding stock (the men whose chattel they are and get pregnant by are literally their _husbands_). Birth control will be needed right about the time the capacity to produce it comes along, hopefully not hampered by millennia of taboos about sex and reproduction.

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**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-start-on-a-new-earth/709467/102 "2015-01-25T21:01:14Z")

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> [@Lumpy](#):
>
> Birth control will be needed right about the time the capacity to produce it comes along

That’s, IMO, optimistic if you choose to follow a minimum-impact path.

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**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-start-on-a-new-earth/709467/103 "2015-01-25T21:29:01Z")

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> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> That seems unlikely; I doubt most people will have four or more children (given the limited resources)

Initially, the resources will be pretty much unlimited and having as many children as possible will be necessary for the survival of the colony.

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