REM@MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP (09/02/83)
From: Robert Elton Maas <REM @ MIT-MC> If a couple's reason for having children is to use them as slaves on the family farm, then indeed technology can provide a cheap replacement for children. If a couple's reason is to have heirs (biologically, financially, etc.), technology doesn't help any. Expansion into space will however alleviate the common pasture problem, because there will be for the disadvantaged people who can't get land on Earth some alternative to death, namely getting "land" in space. Still there's be those who refuse to accept spaceland as a substitute for Earthland, so the problem won't totally go away, but at least there'll be a viable choice for many people.
Haas@UTAH-20@sri-unix.UUCP (09/02/83)
From: Walt <Haas@UTAH-20> So far, all feasible techniques of expansion into space are highly capital-intensive. Capital-intensive societies tend to have declining populations. The same technologies that make expansion into space possible also remove the population-pressure incentive for expanding into space. There are, of course, plenty of other incentives- of which my favorite is the same incentive that makes me climb mountains. Cheers -- Walt -------