A crazy solution to the world population problem

Locut0s

Lifer
Nov 28, 2001
22,205
43
91
So this isn't serious, just something that occured to me out of the blue today. This is undoubtedly morally wrong and not something that you could ever actually do but it is an interesting thought experiment. What it is is a solution to the world's problem of overpopulation.

The solution? Engineer a virus that randomly sterilizes a random sampling of the world's population. The virus would be engineered so that it had absolutely no other impact on the affected person other than making them sterile or infertile. No side effects whatsoever. The virus would be readily transmissible either through the air or like AIDS via sex and blood. You would have to make sure that the number of people it sterilized was high enough that it made an impact on the world's population but not so high that you needed to have a high replacement rate to maintain a reasonably large population. Also you would have to make sure that the targeting was 100% random and didn't favour any one genetic type over another.

Any individual infected with said virus would probably feel it extremely unfair and cruel but when you look at it from a global perspective over time it has some merits.
 

Argo

Lifer
Apr 8, 2000
10,045
0
0
Silly... Very silly.

Why should people in the US, which does not have population problem be punished because of other parts of the world that do have population problem?

Also, why should somebody like me - that is likely to have no more than 2-3 kids, be punished over action of people who have 10+ kids?
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
58,539
8,813
126
I like it. It could have unintended side effects on non related species though.
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
Why should people in the US, which does not have population problem be punished because of other parts of the world that do have population problem?

Woah Woah Woah where do you get this is going to happen over here??? Only places this should happen is Asia, Africa, South America, and the ghettos in all the world.
 

RocksteadyDotNet

Diamond Member
Jul 29, 2008
3,152
1
0
Why should people in the US, which does not have population problem be punished because of other parts of the world that do have population problem?

This.

You would just need to engineer the virus so it doesnt affect whites.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
58,539
8,813
126
You people seriously don't think we have population issues in the USA? You guys must live in Montana or something...
 

Argo

Lifer
Apr 8, 2000
10,045
0
0
Also, seems very dangerous. Make the virus just 1% too aggressive, and you would cause population decline and extinction :)
 

Soccerman06

Diamond Member
Jul 29, 2004
5,830
5
81
Or a way to get rich (and possibly a terrorist) give everyone the virus and have it be 100% effective without the cure and sell the cure for $10.

Disease + remedy = profit. Or we could just make the t-virus and release it in certain places.
 

RPD

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2009
5,100
584
126
Woah Woah Woah where do you get this is going to happen over here??? Only places this should happen is Asia, Africa, South America, and the ghettos in all the world.
I like your thinking.
 

Locut0s

Lifer
Nov 28, 2001
22,205
43
91
Silly... Very silly.

Why should people in the US, which does not have population problem be punished because of other parts of the world that do have population problem?

Also, why should somebody like me - that is likely to have no more than 2-3 kids, be punished over action of people who have 10+ kids?

Because the US is also overpopulated. Not to the degree of China of course but 300+ million is a heck of a lot of people especially at that standard of living. The world can only really sustain a small fraction of it's current population at US standards of living. And also because the idea is to avoid the politically sensitive issue of targeting any one race, country or people which would probably lead to unrest and wars. Countries that are adversely affected by the virus more than others could simply enact more lenient emigration laws to bring more people in that way.

Again I'm not being really serious about this.
 

eLiu

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2001
6,407
1
0
Why would you RANDOMLY sterilize people? I mean honestly if you're going to do this, you might as well define some sort of benchmark for "should/should not reproduce" and sterilize people who don't pass.

I mean if you believe that forced sterilization is immoral & you're going to do it anyway, you might as well do it in a way that's maximally beneficial. Wtf is this trying to be "fair" when you're already fucking sterilizing people?!
 

Dominato3r

Diamond Member
Aug 15, 2008
5,109
1
0
Or a way to get rich (and possibly a terrorist) give everyone the virus and have it be 100% effective without the cure and sell the cure for $10.

Disease + remedy = profit. Or we could just make the t-virus and release it in certain places.

The Feds would just take it away from you.
 

Mr. Pedantic

Diamond Member
Feb 14, 2010
5,027
0
76
You could just raise the overall socioeconomic status, since childbirth rates are generally inversely proportional to GDP per capital.

Or is it just that the United States is more willing to spend the money making a weapon than actually helping people?
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
65,239
13,509
146
This.

You would just need to engineer the virus so it doesnt affect whites.

But then it would miss Mormons and Catholics...two groups seriously in need of such a virus.:p


Because the US is also overpopulated. Not to the degree of China of course but 300+ million is a heck of a lot of people especially at that standard of living. The world can only really sustain a small fraction of it's current population at US standards of living. And also because the idea is to avoid the politically sensitive issue of targeting any one race, country or people which would probably lead to unrest and wars. Countries that are adversely affected by the virus more than others could simply enact more lenient emigration laws to bring more people in that way.

Again I'm not being really serious about this.

Then, the US could simply enact more stringent immigration laws...and kick out all non-citizens and any anchor babies they've had while living here. (although, I suppose, since the anchor babies are legally citizens, we couldn't make them leave...only their parents/non-citizen siblings. Hell, we could seriously reduce the US population with that...:rolleyes:
 

HamburgerBoy

Lifer
Apr 12, 2004
27,111
318
126
You people seriously don't think we have population issues in the USA? You guys must live in Montana or something...

You must think that waiting in Los Angeles rush hour for a couple of hours is a "population issue". Please, I implore you to make your own personal contribution to reducing over-population wherever you live.
 

Crono

Lifer
Aug 8, 2001
23,720
1,502
136
I'm surprised by how often I need to say this in Off Topic, but there is no world population problem.

There is a problem of corrupt governments and wealth distribution.
As long as there isn't free land and resources for everyone (no matter the population size), we'll have starvation and poverty.

The poorest countries in the world - mostly African and Asian nations - do have resources and support, it's just most of the wealth ends up in the hands of war lords, corrupt politicans, and greedy businessmen, and the poor don't have the power to raise themselves up (or not very easily).

Knock down the population of the earth to 250 million, and we'd still have the same problems. Given even just 25 million, I'm betting with current technology we'd still have large scale wars between the nations of the earth.
 
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sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
98,036
16,767
126
Be careful what you wish for, for you might get it.

"The 12 percent of the world’s population that lives in North America and Western Europe accounts for 60 percent of private consumption spending, while the one-third living in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 3.2 percent. "

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/810

If anything it is North American and Western European population that has to be turned into fertiliser.
 
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0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,795
84
91
end food aid
massively subsidize american farmers so they are incentivized to not grow much food at all, only enough for america. this raises food prices around the world and will depress population. it will make americans thinner as well.
job done.