A hypothetical inquiryFollow

Suppose medical technology advanced to the point that it was possible to prolong life indefinately. People could live forever, and maintain clear thinking, decent motor skills, and generally all around good health. Not only that, but this new miracle is affordable enough to be available to the majority of the population of the entire planet.

Unfortunately, one of the side effects of said drug is that it makes the user infertile. You take it once, and you're done, no more offspring.

What then? How do the governments of the world distribute said drug? Should they force certain people not to take it for the purposes of procreation? How do they deal with certain sections of the economy which are soon to take massive hits (like teaching, toys, baby forumla, etc.)?

Do you think most people would opt to take it? In my limited experience most people, when the "Would you want to live forever?" question comes up, say no. Of course, they're not being offered a pill at the time. If nothing else, I think people people would opt to take it after procreating. So we'd still have a teachers & rattles industry and a rapidly rising population rate!

Eventually though, the population will grow so large, that it will need to be controlled. How do we decide who gets to have babies? Do we kill off criminals to make more room for the rest of society? Do we limit the drug to only certain people, and if so, how do we choose said people?

Would you want to live to be 500, but at 80 not be able to remember who your kids are and need a diaper?

I apologise on behalf of the French nation for exporting this twunt.

Demea i highly recommend you read Peter F Hamilton's Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained books, they deal with this subject as a side plot, in that the society has invented a process that resets your body back to that of a 20 year old.

many of the main charicters in the books are upto 500 years old, and it describes in full how the society adapted to it and the consequences for those unable to.

Why would I want to prolong the time I have to spend with all you mother fuCkers?

I think it'd be more interesting and better if you had to choose between the two. You could either take the pill or have offspring but not both. It would help with the population growth.

Living that long you'd see the time when we start colonies on other planets and self efficient energy and food. The problems with over population and supply deficiency would be void.

I might also suggest "Grimus" by Salmon Rushdie.

Guy is given 2 bottles. One for immortality, the other for death. He drinks the immortality potion and immediatly destroys the death potion.... and regrets it the rest of his life...

things then get really strange....

Those books were awesome! I had to wait a year for the second book though, which pissed me off.

I would take it, I've had kids already. Immediately after taking it I would invest in space technology, because in 30-40 years the governments would be spending hella cash trying to build space stations to make room for people.

Keep in mind that people would eventually be able to put hundreds of years of experience into solving a problem. You would also end up with hypereducation, people who go to school for 50 years getting every science and math class that exists. I think scientific discovery would take a pretty significant jump. The solution may not be other planets, but why not dig down instead of flying up? Lots of space and heat down there. There's always a solution people without 400 years of experience haven't thought of.

As for allowing them to have two kids, that won't keep the population even unless they are banned from taking the pill after they have children (and good luck enforcing that one), it would double it every generation (minus accidents of course).

The real ***** would be that you probably couldn't ever retire. Even people with a bajillion dollars in various accounts and investments would find their actual worth drying up as we ran through our resources.