Elon Musk has constantly criticized the low birth rate in the world, with countries like the United States, Italy and Japan having more deaths than births in recent decades. He has even said that he “did his part”, by having 10 children (one of them, the first, died a few days after his birth).
But there are several researchers who show their concern about the demographic situation. And some even raised the use of “human factory”.
Javier Jiménez, from the Xataka portal, brought up the subject recently. “Now that more and more experts are convinced that world population growth is about to sink, the idea that we need more human beings becomes more relevant than ever,” she notes in his text.
Jiménez cites the current difficulties in maternity, from the low chances of life among those born with 23 and 25 weeks of gestation (premature births) to the complications of couples to conceive.
“Pregnancy and childbirth”, indicates the analyst, “They are extremely hard processes and many theorists already speak of the end of natural pregnancy as the ‘last great liberation of humanity’.”
Ectogenesis, the “human factory”
The point that arises is that of the impulse of ectogenesis. This is a practice in which embryos develop in an environment other than a body, where they would form until birth.
artificial wombs. Human factory, in short.
Alan W. Flake, pediatric surgeon and inventor of the artificial uterus for extremely premature babies, experimented on fetal lambs. In 2019, she published an essay on the subject, noting that lamb fetuses at 23-27 weeks’ gestation were kept alive by growing in a “bag” that supplied them with amniotic fluid and blood.
He even worked the hearts of animals.
At that time it was said that the practice could be carried out in humans for the next decade, that is, before 2029.
Anna Smajdor, a doctor from the University of Oslo, pointed out in conversation with Meter that “if the (fetus) were in an artificial womb, it would be possible to access it and control the environment without restricting a woman’s autonomy.”
And how is the training of new people?
The issue is, as Jiménez puts it, citing Scott Alexander at Slate Star Codex, on how to train those humans to produce “the factory.” It is not populating to populate, but educating them, raising them and turning them into functional beings. And the return to educational systems such as orphanages would worry more than one.
So, as long as there is no intention for families to have more children, promoting the necessary social and economic conditions, it seems difficult that the fight against the low birth rate can be won.