The Straits Times’ Post

It's #WorldPopulationDay! If you read mainstream news, you might be led to believe that low birth rates are driving an "underpopulation" crisis. This is absurd and completely untrue. New UN projections released today reveal we are still headed for more than 10 billion people by the end of the century. Learn more about why this is the real cause for concern: https://lnkd.in/dt2ysk-c

With birth rates falling, the worldwide human population is getting older and smaller. According to traditional thinking, this spells a future of labor shortages, bankrupt social security systems and overall economic collapse. Before you panic about the end of life as we know it, political demographer Jennifer D. Sciubba has a thoughtful playbook for managing the new normal – including ideas on the future of work and migration – and a reminder that a resilient future relies on present-day action.

#economics The Economist magazine never ceases to marvel me with its poor analytical journalistic bluster. Macroeconomics disputes Thomas Malthus citing technology. The current projection of evolution of GenerativeAI like ChatGPT or Google Bard with Gemini or IBM Watson X which are all still primitive despite their astronomical market valuations because of their potential in dollar terms is, within a decade, by 2035, most computer programming jobs will be eliminated because computers will be able to program themselves and improve without human intervention. I seriously doubt the next generation born today by the time they are 18 in the 2040s can even write in any language properly. Whether all of humanity would be part of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is not a technological question. It is an economic question. General intelligence level of a humanoid once achieved can be programmatically controlled to enslave it in order for humanity to be liberated from having to work for a living. If we can artificially create AGI, we should be able to modulate its intelligence or control it as we do radio sound volume to comply with Isaac Asimov’s Laws of Robotics and enslave it to liberate humans from capitalist domestication and slavery by fellow humans. At issue is, as I have said in many earlier posts, is who owns the humanoids and factors of production without backsliding into Marxism. Then fertility will rise, naturally without reproductive technologies, because people will have the time on their hands and mood to make love rather than money, because technology will have enabled man to replace all men with machines, the natural culmination of capitalism. For further exposition above and beyond the Economist article referred to in his post by Philip Schellekens, see my conversation for LinkedIn and X with Elon Musk on population: https://lnkd.in/efwHw7xB.

Almost every webinar I go to in alternative economic systems, there is a man in the chat going "bUT WHat AbOUt PoPUlaTion??" as if the problem is "really" population, not overproduction and overconsumption. We already know that when societies become more gender equitable, population growth slows. And here we can see world population is predicted to fall very soon, NOT from disease or restrictive reproduction policies. So now even more reason to reorganise the economic system anyway folks! https://lnkd.in/gPuHdN79

A nation's economy can experience serious impacts if its population increases or decreases dramatically. In China and Russia, plummeting fertility rates have caused worry. Our AI-powered Talisman platform combed through hyperlocal conversation and behavior to uncover the social and economic effects and what local residents and governments are saying and doing in response. Read the newsletter. https://hubs.ly/Q02L4Gml0 #DataScience #GeopoliticalInsights #FinancialServices

Friends, in 1968, a book called The Population Bomb written by entomologist Paul Ehrlich helped spark panic in the West that the global population was reaching a breaking point, saying too many human beings would soon cause widespread famine and social chaos. This view that a growing human population is an existential threat to humanity remains widespread to this day. For example, University of Chicago political philosopher Martha Nussbaum recently stated that given the world’s current population, “no one should be having any children.” Contemporary empirical evidence, however, points in exactly the opposite direction. Deaths are already outpacing births in many regions of the world, resulting in precipitous declines in national populations. Is this good news for humanity? Are public policies aimed at population control justified? Is there such a thing as an ideal population size? Should anyone care about whether others choose to have children or not? https://lnkd.in/gH32QpfQ https://lnkd.in/gAbc5v86

A nation's economy can experience serious impacts if its population increases or decreases dramatically. In China and Russia, plummeting fertility rates have caused worry. Our AI-powered Talisman platform combed through hyperlocal conversation and behavior to uncover the social and economic effects and what local residents and governments are saying and doing in response. Read the newsletter. https://hubs.li/Q02L4Gzv0 #DataScience #GeopoliticalInsights #FinancialServices

As birth rates drop, societies face aging populations, reduced economic productivity, and greater strain on healthcare systems. What strategies can governments adopt to reverse the trend of declining birth rates? #WorldGovSummit #Economy

Essay: Heat waves can be deadly for older adults – an aging global population and rising temperatures mean millions are at risk, as Asia is experiencing. Researchers DEBORAH CARR, ENRICA DE CIAN, GIACOMO FALCHETA and IAN SUE WING say, in an article first published on The Conversation, that their work shows more elderly people will be at risk as temperatures rise… Sight Magazine #heatwaves #elderly #agingpopulation #Asia #India #Philippines #Japan #extremeheat #impactsofextremeheat https://lnkd.in/gYyYVq2v

A nation's economy can experience serious impacts if its population increases or decreases dramatically. In China and Russia, plummeting fertility rates have caused worry. Our AI-powered Talisman platform combed through hyperlocal conversation and behavior to uncover the social and economic effects and what local residents and governments are saying and doing in response. Read the newsletter. https://hubs.ly/Q02JJL590 #DataScience #GeopoliticalInsights #FinancialServices