This is what persuades you that Huxley was "right'? A webcomic? Man, you're really thinking deeply about these issues.
What I took from that comic - The person who wrote and drew it is Australian, which is easily picked up as you go through. The rest is a simplistic, incomplete argument likely more designed to make you think, than to argue a point.
After a quick bit of searching, you can find more of that cartoonist's work Here.
I think Rym's idea of justifying your life could make for a neat short story.
I know I've read this idea in a science fiction book before, but I can't for the life of me remember which one! I know it wasn't the main focus of the story though.
"Defending Your Life" is one of the best Albert Brooks movies out there.
Honestly, I thought the boys were a little tired during this episode. Rym's "I don't have time to think about the problem so let the government handle it" led him logically to China's one child policy right there in the show. Rym worked for the Census. He's seen what happens when you let government do anything and yet he would want to justify his life to a bureaucrat? How would that go?
Bureaucrat: "Now Brandon, how have you spent the first 120 years of your life?" Rym: "Well, I watched a lot of Anime, did podcasts, worked in IT and went to a ton of conventions." Bureaucrat: Hmmm, it says here that you voted for Obama back in the aughts. Rym: "Well, yes, oh, and I really, really like Horatio Hornblower!" Bureaucrat: "I'm sorry Brandon, your application is denied. Please report to the incinerator."
And guys, what's with the scarcity mentality? Overpopulation cannot happen on a sustained basis. Either people figure out how to sustain higher populations or bad things happen and then things stabilize again. It works itself out. When the government gets involved, you get Stalin and Mao starving 10s of millions of people to death.
Honestly, I thought the boys were a little tired during this episode. Rym's "I don't have time to think about the problem so let the government handle it" led him logically to China's one child policy right there in the show. Rym worked for the Census. He's seen what happens when you let government do anything and yet he would want to justify his life to a bureaucrat? How would that go?
I shied from real argument at that point, I will agree. But, in a world where the creation of another sentient being is a conscious and deliberate act, akin to building something, rather than something that could happen by accident or on a whim, things are possibly a bit different. I foresee a far future where immortal trans-humans decide when and if to create new immortal trans-humans as resources, need, and desire evolve. Unless we transcend physicality entirely, even a post-scarcity society on a planet has a scarcity of physical space.
I imagine a possible society where, upon reaching a determined age, one must petition to remain on the home planet, or else be asked to leave for the stars. I imagine a society where newly created immortal trans-humans are sent off to live vast swaths of time away from their planet of birth, with the option of returning in some distant future to petition for a place to stay, recounting their innumerable stories from countless distant suns. In this way, a stable planetary society of immortals can possibly avoid stagnation while remaining stable within the scope of the few scarcities which may remain.
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After a quick bit of searching, you can find more of that cartoonist's work Here.
Honestly, I thought the boys were a little tired during this episode. Rym's "I don't have time to think about the problem so let the government handle it" led him logically to China's one child policy right there in the show. Rym worked for the Census. He's seen what happens when you let government do anything and yet he would want to justify his life to a bureaucrat? How would that go?
Bureaucrat: "Now Brandon, how have you spent the first 120 years of your life?"
Rym: "Well, I watched a lot of Anime, did podcasts, worked in IT and went to a ton of conventions."
Bureaucrat: Hmmm, it says here that you voted for Obama back in the aughts.
Rym: "Well, yes, oh, and I really, really like Horatio Hornblower!"
Bureaucrat: "I'm sorry Brandon, your application is denied. Please report to the incinerator."
And guys, what's with the scarcity mentality? Overpopulation cannot happen on a sustained basis. Either people figure out how to sustain higher populations or bad things happen and then things stabilize again. It works itself out. When the government gets involved, you get Stalin and Mao starving 10s of millions of people to death.
I imagine a possible society where, upon reaching a determined age, one must petition to remain on the home planet, or else be asked to leave for the stars. I imagine a society where newly created immortal trans-humans are sent off to live vast swaths of time away from their planet of birth, with the option of returning in some distant future to petition for a place to stay, recounting their innumerable stories from countless distant suns. In this way, a stable planetary society of immortals can possibly avoid stagnation while remaining stable within the scope of the few scarcities which may remain.