I am one who has decided not to have children, in part because I don't want to bring people I [would] love into this world in the state it's in.
You are right that we (at least in the First World) are standing at the pinnacle of human civilization. We have access to the knowledge of the whole world, going back throughout much of world history. We have science, medicine, technology that would dazzle our ancestors. All of the great things you talked about are true.
And yet...
I've seen the migration of the Monarch Butterfly. It's glorious, absolutely magical. Uncountable numbers of these gorgeous orange and black beauties fill the air, all fluttering together, all wobbling along in the same direction. It's impossible to describe the feeling of witnessing it, of being surrounded by an aerial sea of these soft gentle beautiful beings.
It doesn't happen anymore.
The Monarch population tanked a couple of years ago. Not enough milkweed for the caterpillars to eat. Too much land has been given over to human food production. People are planting milkweed in their gardens now, but who can say if the Monarchs will rebound?
Our food animals outweigh all other land mammals combined, by more than twenty times.[1]
All the glories of our Western civilization come from an extraordinarily wasteful system that is converting oil and natural biomass into humans and meat animals and trash. There are always trade-offs, and we may well be about to become victims of our own success.
I don't want to have to explain to my children what Monarch Butterflies were, what tigers and elephants were, what coral reefs were.
When the waters rise and billions of people have to move or die, I don't want my kids to have to deal with that.
I don't want them to suffer when the first genegineered virus sweeps through our cities.
I don't want them to be embedded in a technological panopticon that indelibly records their every movement and communication.
There are some serious problems that humanity is facing and I don't have the faith to create a new human being in light of them. And that's what it is: faith.
Dismissing these concerns as "foolish nonsense" is the "utterly short-sighted thinking" in my view.
No sir, I'll keep my kids safe in the Uncreate, at least until such time as things have settled.
"May you live in interesting times" is a curse, and I won't pronounce it on my own unborn offspring, thank you.
[1]
> Our phytomass harvests go beyond the metabolic needs to secure raw materials (wood, fibers, pulp) and energy (fuelwood, charcoal, straw) whose inputs remain indispensable even in the age of metals, concrete, synthetics, and fossil fuels. The biosphere has paid a considerable price for these human gains as both its total stock of standing phytomass and its overall productivity have declined by significant margins. And because we are an omnivorous species we have also been harvesting a wide variety of zoomass by collecting and hunting animals as foragers and eventually also deliberately raising them as pastoralists and farmers. These actions have reduced the stocks of wild terrestrial and marine animals while massively expanding the stocks of cattle, water buffaloes, horses, camels, sheep, pigs, and poultry.
Sure, there are scary and potentially troubling things going on in the world.
If you are waiting for scary things to pass, you'll wait forever.
There will never be a perfect utopian time when the economy is running 100% efficiently, when humanity is in perfect harmony with nature, when there are zero threats of war, etc.
Your argument doesn't address this simple truth: there has never been a better time and place for humanity as now in first-world nations. It isn't perfect -- as you point out there are serious problems to tackle -- and yet, it's never been better.
This presupposes that the Titanic (civilization) will sink (die).
The idea that civilization will die has been a remote possibility for virtually all of human history. That we should not have children because of this remote possibility is fear-driven foolishness.
If you don't want or can't have children, no judgment. But let's not claim the reason is because civilization is so terrible - when in fact it's the best it's ever been, especially in rich first-world nations of the West.
You are right that we (at least in the First World) are standing at the pinnacle of human civilization. We have access to the knowledge of the whole world, going back throughout much of world history. We have science, medicine, technology that would dazzle our ancestors. All of the great things you talked about are true.
And yet...
I've seen the migration of the Monarch Butterfly. It's glorious, absolutely magical. Uncountable numbers of these gorgeous orange and black beauties fill the air, all fluttering together, all wobbling along in the same direction. It's impossible to describe the feeling of witnessing it, of being surrounded by an aerial sea of these soft gentle beautiful beings.
It doesn't happen anymore.
The Monarch population tanked a couple of years ago. Not enough milkweed for the caterpillars to eat. Too much land has been given over to human food production. People are planting milkweed in their gardens now, but who can say if the Monarchs will rebound?
Our food animals outweigh all other land mammals combined, by more than twenty times.[1]
All the glories of our Western civilization come from an extraordinarily wasteful system that is converting oil and natural biomass into humans and meat animals and trash. There are always trade-offs, and we may well be about to become victims of our own success.
I don't want to have to explain to my children what Monarch Butterflies were, what tigers and elephants were, what coral reefs were.
When the waters rise and billions of people have to move or die, I don't want my kids to have to deal with that.
I don't want them to suffer when the first genegineered virus sweeps through our cities.
I don't want them to be embedded in a technological panopticon that indelibly records their every movement and communication.
There are some serious problems that humanity is facing and I don't have the faith to create a new human being in light of them. And that's what it is: faith.
Dismissing these concerns as "foolish nonsense" is the "utterly short-sighted thinking" in my view.
No sir, I'll keep my kids safe in the Uncreate, at least until such time as things have settled.
"May you live in interesting times" is a curse, and I won't pronounce it on my own unborn offspring, thank you.
[1] > Our phytomass harvests go beyond the metabolic needs to secure raw materials (wood, fibers, pulp) and energy (fuelwood, charcoal, straw) whose inputs remain indispensable even in the age of metals, concrete, synthetics, and fossil fuels. The biosphere has paid a considerable price for these human gains as both its total stock of standing phytomass and its overall productivity have declined by significant margins. And because we are an omnivorous species we have also been harvesting a wide variety of zoomass by collecting and hunting animals as foragers and eventually also deliberately raising them as pastoralists and farmers. These actions have reduced the stocks of wild terrestrial and marine animals while massively expanding the stocks of cattle, water buffaloes, horses, camels, sheep, pigs, and poultry.
"Harvesting the Biosphere: The Human Impact" ~ Vaclav Smil http://www.vaclavsmil.com/wp-content/uploads/PDR37-4.Smil_.p...