Reason I included it is because it’s the only way to completely reverse the event and make everything the way it was before. Why would you want this? How stable would the population otherwise, without unplanned pregnancies? Might not be a risk some are willing to take.
Wow, that’s just the shadow of eugenics, I knew I liked you. Nevertheless you show more mercy than I. The pills and the formula are destroyed. Vain humanity better get to work making documentaries of themselves for the cat-people who will follow. Not that the cat people will bother watching them.
Something along the lines of: anyone who wants it that’s either a) over 25, or b) has completed schooling (to a certain level, depending on local standards). That’s partly to directly cut way back on teen pregnancy and reduce family size, but also in an attempt to make education a desirable characteristic for girls in countries where they’re currently taken out of school and married off at a young age.
I shocked myself by selecting “Nobody gets it. The Earth is better off without another generation of us”, which is completely immoral in my opinion. I then asked myself if I’d push the red button that caused all those gamma rays to be emitted, and even then I wasn’t sure if going from passive to active changed anything. Hmm. I’m stressed, tired, and suffering a cold…maybe I’ll feel less murderous after some sleep.
Anybody else who selected that want to speak up?
Lessee - how about anyone has a chance at it, but they have to earn it one way or another.
-
You put up 100 million dollars. 50 million to me, 50 million in trust for the child’s education.
-
You pass some kind of test of intellectual ability - say, you’ve graduated from Harvard, or something like that, or you pass some kind of standardized test (let’s assume this is something that nobody can fake).
-
You pass some kind of test of physical prowess. Olympic gold medalist-level performance.
-
You are recognized for some other kind of heroism (must be nominated and there’s a panel that reviews it).
-
An annual lottery (like Larry Niven’s Birthright Lottery). Anyone can win. Non-transferrable, however - you can’t win, say “don’t wanna” and let your sibling have your pill.
Most of these are going to weed out the crack addicts and real wackjobs, and the high price tag for buying your way in makes it impractical to start a 15-kid family that way.
Of course we rule out any dominant things like Huntington’s disease. Anyone who wins (or wants to buy in) has to pass a genetic test to prove they’re not a carrier of something that lethal. And any winner is counseled and strongly encouraged to undergo testing before partnering with someone who might be a carrier of other stuff (e.g. CF, Tay-Sachs).
Questions though: is this per person or per couple? Is it a one-time thing or does their fertility remain permanently? Are their offspring fertile?
One pill per person. Their rate of fertility returns to pre-event levels permanently. The next generation is unaffected by the event.
I did. Humans are revolting things that only rarely produce a merciful and good specimen, which they immediately persecute. To the devil with them all. I’d think differently if Good was actively championed and violence chastised, but even a selective deliverence from infertility would not promise reformation of our nature. Humans are a scourge to all life. We have to imagine demons and alien life forms just to witness something more horrible than ourselves.
Funny, I just have to imagine parasitic wasps.
And mint.
All women get the cure. The only man who gets the cure is me. How YOU doin?
But more seriously, you definitely need to get the cure to as many women as possible, just because women are much more limited than men in how long and how often they can produce children.
You can afford to be a lot choosier when it comes to refertilizing the men. Say, only give it out to men capable of supporting a family. Along with this, you make the penalties a LOT harsher for those men who still wind up deadbeating. Like forced labor or something. Women who deadbeat, they have to serve as surrogates/egg donors/etc. for women who are sterile even with the cure.
Some of that might sound a little ridic, but it’s a ridiculous situation to begin with, after all.
What I’d be doing is staying the hell away from you with your fertile cooties. ![]()
Pretty spot-on, really. We think we are so damn special, though I think any given species feels basically the same (or they would rather quickly die off).
If I had the cure and was of a mind to distribute it, I would require each recipient to first make their case before a jury in their community. I certainly would not be wise enough to make such a choice, nor would any other person, but a panel might be fit to decide. It would be even better if all the subsequent children were also born sterile and had to argue for their right to breed (in some cases, an advocate would be warranted).
Mississippi Baptists on welfare?
Eugenics is pretty well discredited, so I would never engage in that. That way, I would be able convince myself of my superior moral principles even as I grew more and more disgustingly wealthy by selling the cure to a desperate world. At some point, I’d start to really, deeply understand Ayn Rand.
I was coming down that way too, at first, but then I decided a minimum age wouldn’t hurt. I’m picking 24: in my version of this alternate universe, anyone at least 24 years old who wants it can have it; nobody under that age can.
Well not eugenics per se, but I toyed with the idea of giving the cure to only one gender of each ethnicity. Then I came to the conclusion that even that wouldn’t solve racism so opted for goodbye project humanity, time to make way for the next rising species.
I’d chuck it into the nearest volcano and eliminate the human pest.
{my people}
I’d still withhold the cure until we got the population seriously reduced. We’d have to re-think a whole lot of things about our modern society if we stopped having kids, and I think that would be a good thing.
Moderation in all things. ![]()
I have long been of the opinion that the world would be a better place if every child was sterilized at birth. Then, at any point after age 21, they could choose to have their fertility turned back on for one year. They could have it extended each year, but it always has to be a conscious choice. So, I think that #2 is the way to go.
HOWEVER, I do have a couple things that might be interesting:
- Gotta write an essay about why you want to have kids. At least 10 pages, 12 point font, 1 inch margins. That will weed out folks who aren’t really that passionate about kids.
- Or, how about 1 out of every 1000 pills is actually a fast acting poison? Again, would really ensure that only the people most committed to parenthood would apply.
But, really, there is no way to have a test or requirement for the pill that wouldn’t be evil. I’m pretty sure the most important requirement for parenthood is the desire to be a parent. So I would give it to anyone who asks for it.
Administer a test that is a combination of both an IQ test and a test measuring common sense. Anyone below a minimum mark will not get the cure.