Aliens offer you a chance for liftime luxury for every human in exchange for sterilisation.

In My Humble Opinion
1

A delegation from the Ecksian Fereation, an interstellar power focused on planet Ecks, approaches you. They have been studying humanity, its rapid leaps in technology and initiative, and they’re worried. Not for themselves, as they only live 150 years, but for future generations.

They estimate that within about 3000 years humanity will pull itself out of the Sol system, start terraforming planets and be the dominant political force in the galaxy.

The Ecksians are too moral to oblitarate the humans whilst techonogically backward and also to sterilise them without permission. Howver, by some quirk of their ethical issues you are considered to be someone who they feel can speak for the whole of humannity, (why, I don’t know)

They offer you this deal; they can either leave immediatley effecting nothing on Earth or they can painlessly, imediately and non-invasively sterilise every human. At this moment a sperm somewhere is fertilizing an egg, that will be the last one ever.

If they leave, they tell you that quickly Earth’s energy reserves will run out, causing widespread famine and misery, and it’ll probably be about 200-300 years before humanity reaches the technical solution, which they’re not abnout to share.

If you agree to the mass sterilsation, they will spend the next 150 yearsensuring every human lives a happy luxurious existence. Thosethat want to continue working will have a massive increase in choices of roles; those that don’t will have massive increases in choices of leisure time; Ecksian games, art and fictional works are numurous and top-notch, everyone’d have free transit throughout the Federation, and medicine that would give an average 150 year lifespan with no degeneration, almost all diseases cured. Any advantage you can think a highly technical race can give, they would.

This is a one-time thing, if you say no, they, (or their descendants) will never return. Regardless of your choice, no human will ever know it was you that made it.

Assume for the scenario that they are telling the truth and you believe them, I know in reality you would not trust them.

So do you take the deal?

2

Are the fetuses of pregnant women going to be born sterile?

3

Yes.

4

Nope, it sounds like humanity will recover and a little suffering is good for you sometimes, it certainly seems better then dooming the human race. I’d be looking at 120 years of prosperity and my daughter would get the full 150 but I’m not sure what the point of living would be if my every wish was taken care of and my child’s too but there was no one to pass any knowledge I gained to.

Bring on the suffering

5

So, basically, one last “Golden Age,” in exchange for extinction? Pass. Speaking for the species, we’ll take our chances with famine.

6

I’m voting no. I always support the home team. (note that I never considered New York to be my home).

7

Is this some sort of fable to promote environmentalism?

8

No, no agenda. Just literally wondering how people feel on the Absolute paradise and long life for every human living now but no ultimate future for humanity as a whole vs misery for every human living now, but a bright future for ultimate descendants

9

They have just told us that the solution to our problem is from our children, and this world and universe is their (our children’s) inheritance. Our children are our future and our greatest strength.

They are not offering anything of any value.

Additionally life w/o children is not a paradise for humanity, no children would do far more harm to many people then whatever luxury they could ever provide.

Charge them a visiting fee and send them on their way.

10

How would I feel if somebody had been offered this same choice a hundred years ago? Would I feel they had had the moral right to end humanity? I have to say I don’t. So by extension I don’t have the moral right to end future generations either.

11

This sounds like a variation on Clarke’s “Childhood’s End.”

12

Can the aliens answer the existential question about whether life has meaning? Can they solve the all consuming nihilism of knowing that our people, values, cultures, religions, and way of life will pass into the abyss of history?

Happiness is not for me and for many other people the ultimate goal in life.

13

I don’t personally care if the human race continues after me or not, but I also wouldn’t feel right making that decision for everyone else. I would say no for that reason.

14

With a bit of ‘Have Spacesuit Will Travel’.

For me? Fuck no. We’re humans and we’re ambitious climbers. If they’re telling me to make the deal now over concerns in 3000 years, I’m thinking they’re actually worried about something in 300.

The pain will make us tougher and more resourceful. God help the innocent when we break out. They might have the ethics to not interfere. Good for them. But it sure SOUNDS like the galaxy is ripe for the taking.

15

No answer yet, on my part. Just a couple of thoughts.

Since a world without children will become a chaotic dystopia by default, with humanity in a permanent state of freak-out, the “paradise for everyone living” bit isn’t really going to work. That is, unless the aliens drug everyone’s coffee so that no one notices the odd shortage of offspring.

I mean, I would personally be happy as a pig in clover in world without kids. I can’t stand the little rascals. But that’s just me. Society doesn’t seem to agree, and would probably collapse. So, happiness for everyone currently living isn’t a realistic offer.

Am I fighting the hypothetical?

You’re saying this like it’s a bad thing. Is it? Or is it just bad for the aliens in question? Sounds pretty awesome for humanity. Are we simply taking for granted here that humans dominating the galaxy will automatically involve the wanton destruction of countless Pandora-like paradises (and the putting up of parking lots), and inevitable galactic warming? 'Cause I would need to figure that into the calculus.

16

Not a chance. I want to see humanity (a more enlightened variety in the future, hopefully) everywhere.

17

Basically, the actual question seems to be: Should we wipe out humanity, because we suck? Or not? The rest of the discussion appears to be a bit beside the point.

18

No, if you believe that’s what will happen, despite free transit ant carte blanche to do anything that becomes possible within the scenario, that’s not fighting the hypotheical

Not a bad thing for humanity certainly, it’s up to you to wonder how good/bad it will be for the universe as a whole, I would assume the human union would probably be benign, the Ecksians just don’t want to lose their #1 spot for their (great*150)-grandchildren.

19

No the question is more "we’ve got ~7billion actual humans, (including you) who could lead fantastic extra-long lives or they could lead short miserable ones. However, if they take the second option their (long long term) descendents, (none of whom actually exist yet) will grow and thrive. What would you do?

The aliens are just a convenient framing device.

20

No, I pretty much see it the way Martian Bigfoot does. It’s a question of whether to exterminate humanity or not.

After all, everyone in the current generation will die, and once they die their fantastic luxury also dies. So the two scenarios are only different for 150 years or so. 200 years from now, the end result is: live humans or dead humans.

Maybe this is a cup-is-half-full kind of interpretation, but I think it’s a very simple mathematical problem. Any finite value (length of luxury) divided by any infinite value (length that humans are extinct) is essentially 0.