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Originally Posted by Andross
Oh, and there's a simple solution to the problem of overpopulation- have less kids. The thing is, people have too many kids; two or three should be the maximum. Also, discouraging reproduction, and, instead, encouraging education and/or entrepreneurship is another good way to help solve this problem.
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That doesn't solve it at all. Disregarding third world countries, if everyone lives on average to at least 75, and each person has only one kid when he or she's 25, then by the time that one person passes on, there will be three people born during the life span of one (I think I did the math right; if not, let me know). Even when factoring in chances of dying before then, you have the rest of the world to think about. Ever study exponential growth? At our population, even one kid per family is going to do damage, just not as much. But still, this doesn't solve it as much as we want it to.
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Originally Posted by Aralith
I actually remember reading a study recently that says that there is some, though hardly conclusive, evidence that humans are biologically immortal. If you don't know what that means, it's basically that once an organism gets to a certain age, it stops biologically aging. Now while things such as disease and trauma can still cause death, aging alone cannot. The effect has been observed in single celled organisms and some larger creatures, but the fact that humans might be is quite incredible. For those that will inevitably ask for a source on this information (and so you should), here it is: Late Life: A New Frontier for Physiology |
I disagree. Biological studies show that the skin will continue to age and die, even if you, oh say, lived in a sterile bubble for your entire life with no chance of being shot, killed, mamed, infected, etcetera. And not just skin. Cells in general have a set replicating limit as mentioned earlier. That also means that your heart, lungs, intestines won't always be able to heal themselves or continue in perfect health. So really, the simple aging factor dooms us. At least, that's how I figure it.
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Originally Posted by Igna
On the plus side, if it did miraculously work, it would probably be so costly and complex that it would be limited to a select few, thus not theoretically dropping our overpopulation problem from a bowl of lukewarm soup into the depths of hell.
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Yeah but we're talking about if it would turn out to be used on a large scale. Though I agree.