In my last post, “Robots: The Next Generation” I presented three options to help with the depopulation problem Europe and Japan are facing. Option 1: encourage your population to have more kids (nothing draconian – use tax credits). Option 2: open up the gates to immigration hoping for a melting pot effect (this is not going smoothly in France right now). And option 3: do what Japan seems set to do – build robots.
There’s a fourth option that appeals to many of us alive today – avoid death. If Aubrey de Grey and those he inspires successfully deliver life extension, we’d have longer productive lives. People who would have been satisfied to bide their last work days in do-nothing jobs would, if their youth were restored, retrain for more productive jobs. People who are presently discriminated against because of their age would come to be valued for their experience.
Even if people had to retrain every few years, such a society would be vastly more productive because they wouldn’t have to start from scratch as with children. The basic skills would already be mastered.
Those who are concerned that this could mean fewer children (it would) should take a closer look at much of the developed world. Children are already rare in much of Europe and Japan. Since that is the case, don’t these countries have a great incentive to keep their older population healthy longer?
It wouldn’t have to be an anti-child world. With scarcity comes added value. More resources could be devoted to each child to insure them the best education possible.
Also, the demographics in Europe and Japan answer those life extension critics who fear over-population. It’s not logical to worry about overpopulation when your country is losing a third of its population every generation.
So perhaps we have four options for dealing with depopulation. And none of them are mutually exclusive.