• ℕ𝕖𝕞𝕠@slrpnk.net
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    3 days ago

    You may think this means that only 5% of people, 1 in 20, will be able to have kids. But actually, it takes two, and if there’s no way to predict who can and cannot, it becomes closer to 1 in 400. The 1/20 chance of the male partner being fertile is multiplied by the 1/20 chance of the female partner being fertile.

    It’s difficult to prove someone infertile, but if someone can conceive a child, that proves their fertility. This is of limited utility in the case of women, but I suppose a man of proven fertility could make a living as a stud, attempting to knock up eligible women. So once you’ve identified a population of fertile males, you knock that half of the equation back down to a 1/1 and the women can go back to the much better 1/20 odds. Of course, you’d need to re-identify potential studs over time from the newer generations as older ones die off. And unless each woman is having twenty daughters you’re still suffering from rapid population decline and the attendant societal collapse.

    So, in summary: It’d be real bad, and even if it didn’t kill off humanity in a generation it probably would knock us back to the bronze age within a century. And even if we somehow manage to dodge that it will still change human society permanently in unpredictable ways.

    • infinite_ass@leminal.spaceOP
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      3 days ago

      I think that the population would just shrink. People would freak out for a month then it would become the new normal. And we’d handle it. And suddenly everything would be cheaper and lots of nice forests would grow.

      • (⬤ᴥ⬤)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 days ago

        the idea that population size is the driving force of ecological collapse is ecofascist. the world is being burned by a few hundred people, not the majority of the population.

        • weeeeum@lemmy.world
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          14 hours ago

          This is exactly it. Everything is fucking expensive because of companies, and direct consequences of their control. Food is expensive because of massive conglomerates that control a majority of food sales. Housing is fucking expensive because it has become an investment where investors are incentivised to push it higher. Medical bills are fucking expensive because people will give up EVERYTHING to NOT DIE. Transportation is expensive because car companies force us all to own, maintain and repair cars.

          The population is FINE, its just companies that create artificial scarcity to squeeze every last fucking dime out of us. It’s genuinely sickening how little wealth of the elderly will actually be passed on to family members . After nursing home fees, medical bills and inheritance tax theres nearly nothing left, just as the system intended.