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Oliver's avatar

This is a strong case for requiring insurance to cover egg freezing and storage, since social changes sometimes bring changes in medical needs as well. I've seen the heartbreak of friends who waited too long.

Humans often have a strong psychological bias against thinking practically about their aging and mortality, however. I wonder how we can overcome that? Maybe if insurance framed this as just a regular part of medical care. We can have people celebrate "Egg Retrieval Day" on TikTok...

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Jules Arntz-Gray's avatar

Interesting argument with regard to concerns about depopulation. Are there any economic models that aren't predicated on growth of population forever? At times it can almost feel like our economy only works because it is like a Ponzi scheme. Could technology/automation relieve the need for endless human growth?

The reason I ask is while technology has allowed much more humans to be supported than would have originally been calculated based on our pre-tech carrying capacity will that hold 1000 years, 10,000 years, 5 million years into the future?

We are already it appears into a serious mass extinction some dub the anthropocene. Can population growth forever also allow room for other species (where habitat loss is one of the main drivers) or do they have to be a necessary casualty of the need to grow to keep our economic model working?

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