They’re selling nudes of imaginary women on Reddit

First off, if we want to bring the birth rate back up, we would probably do well to implement social policies that makes having kids less of a nightmare for everyone but the very rich or very poor: generous paternal leave, some kind of childcare (a creche-like system), better tax credits, good public schools, etc. I understand that well-paid developers might be less attuned to this kind of thing, but as a non-dev professional in a HCOL city with a young baby, I promise you that economic factors are the major reason we will not have another child.

Second, while I understand that the economy is organized around ever-growing populations, it seems like at some point, we'll have to figure out how to deal with declining or flat birthrates. We can't just grow forever, can we? Could the planet really sustain triple or quadruple the current population?

Taking morals out of this, and instead focusing on human nature along with current trends, it’s not hard to imagine this having a real impact.

I don’t think any of these possible downsides are a foregone conclusion, but neither should we dismiss the unpredictable impact of developments that fundamentally alter the sources of satisfaction for basic human biological drives. We already know that we’ll happily trade the future for short term satisfaction, so when something new comes onto the scene that encourages the proliferation of this behavior, we should bring curiosity, not dismissal.

We’ve already observed similar phenomena in nature [0] (the bottles were eventually redesigned to protect the species), and while this doesn’t prove that humans are as susceptible as beetles, it’s worth considering the nature of unintended consequences.

The term moral panic has started to lose its meaning, and caution about AI should not be conflated with unjustifiable beliefs about culturally controversial pastimes. They are orthogonal and unlike each other, and the nature of the concerns are quite different.

- [0] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1440-6055.1983...

What matters is planned pregnancies, and to that, housing and childcare absolutely factor into that decision.

With that said, dating can be tough too. I worked hard to get my dating skills to the level of being with someone that I want to be with (I’ve met others that tried and failed. It took 3 years of constant rejection, I learned to deal with rejection by necessity).

Also, having a relationship is tough. I had two that lasted both around 4 years. Currently learning non-violent communication to become better at having a healthy fight since that’s where things always went wrong.

The thing is: 50 years ago, you sort of married the first person you had a kid with and did your best to suck it up (that’s what I see around me in The Netherlands anyway). However, nowadays we want our relationships to be much nicer than “make it work, somehow”. I feel we’re more picky. I know I want a relationship that feels fulfilling, I’d rather be alone otherwise. And I think 50 years ago, people were less picky about that.

I rewatched it a couple of weeks ago and it felt like a documentary. The movie is 10 years old.

Many of you have probably watched/rewatched it recently, but if you haven’t, I highly recommend it.

The wooden frame on computers, valuing things “written by humans” hit close to home.