Quest to create viable human sex cells in lab progressing rapidly, with huge implications for reproduction
Scientists are just a few years from creating viable human sex cells in the lab, according to an internationally renowned pioneer of the field, who says the advance could open up biology-defying possibilities for reproduction.
Speaking to the Guardian, Prof Katsuhiko Hayashi, a developmental geneticist at the University of Osaka, said rapid progress is being made towards being able to transform adult skin or blood cells into eggs and sperm, a feat of genetic conjury known as in-vitro gametogenesis (IVG).
His own lab is about seven years away from the milestone, he predicts. Other frontrunners include a team at the University of Kyoto and a California-based startup, Conception Biosciences, whose Silicon Valley backers include the OpenAI founder, Sam Altman and whose CEO told the Guardian that growing eggs in the lab “might be the best tool we have to reverse population decline” and could pave the way for human gene editing.
I’ll never understand people who complain about population decline. It’s a good thing. There are too many people here already. My thought on reading the headline was that it could be used in a different way. Everyone could be voluntarily sterilized, and then when they are ready and willing to have a kid they could use this new method to produce sex cells. No more unwanted pregnancies.
Population decline is not a problem for humanity. It is a problem for capitalism.
Even worse they’re probably looking at the projection and seeing a loss of revenue directly related to population rates. They want more sheep to feed their money making systems.
Well of course
Depopulation is a problem for any economic system. You can’t run any form of government or economy when young workers aren’t contributing to the tax base and the aging population requires more and more care.
Sure as clockwork someone will come along and say tax the rich. That only works for so long in this scenario. The rich get rich off our backs. No backs, no rich.
No, see, what if we just had way less people? Fuck taxes, fuck the economy, just have everyone commit to a one child policy. Yeah, I won’t be able to sit on my ass and play WoW all day, but is that really helping anyone?
Responses will be delayed by WoW marathons.
When you hit retirement, so will literally everyone else. You want to hire a nurse to wipe your ass because you can’t, there’s a 25 year waiting list because everyone is old.
Your one grandchild has 6 older people to take care of in addition to their one child (spouse exactly in the same position)
Yeah? And? Intergenerational households are a thing. Communities are a thing. A culture of small communities would be, in my opinion, superior to this isolating capitalist society.
Pivoting now, why would I want anyone to wipe my ass? I’m not a king. If I die because my immediate community and I cannot take care of myself, then that’s how it goes. I don’t plan on living forever and I certainly don’t plan on life being free of suffering. It is my sincere hope and goal to be the kind of person that people want in their lives. *I want to contribute positivity and love, which is, again, in my opinion, the pathway to a good life and thereby maintain a close community that helps one another. *
Third pivot. If, and I do mean IF, you read that last sentence and responded cynically, reflect on where that is coming from and let me know. (I have italicized the sentence for clarity.)
Doesn’t matter, you need working age people. A society can’t function if it’s all old people. Period
Not true lol
What a succinct, compelling argument!
Alright, ill do a mostly complete argument. Define depopulation please :3
People would have lots of kids if each subsequent child didn’t make their existing family’s life much more difficult
People used to have 5+ kids and it was considered fine. It’s a cultural thing.
The culture is linked to the income. People have more kids in poorer countries because they typically don’t have a social safety net so the only way to survive in old age is by having lots of children. When the countries become richer and get social security they start having less kids, especially when kids become a financial burden
Who is going to take care of all the old people? AI?
Who’s gonna take care of everyone when earth reaches it’s carrying capacity? Which is actually decreasing as we continue to ravage the planet.
Oh yeah who cares? It’ll just be all the poor who suffer and die.
The Earth won’t reach carrying capacity. Population is projected to max at 9 billion and after that it’s going down
That’s the actual setup of ergo proxy…not that they are volountarily sterilised. The whole point us the artifucial womb. I don’t know if you watched it but if you haven’t, do it.
Mandating that girls from age of 12 be inseminated with republican zionist sperm once per year would be more “America first” policy.
… and no more poor stupid people (as per Musk’s eugenics beliefs)
Here’s why.
https://youtu.be/Ufmu1WD2TSk
Yes, that sounds like a wonderful idea. Let’s put the reproductive future of the species under commercial and/or governmental control.
Both of those things are demonstrably trustworthy, especially in the last decade.
We should cede all control to them. Indeed.
(/s)
Are you a young naive tech bro, or a Nazi Eugenicist? Is there a difference anymore? Have you even thought about what you are saying? That’s an insane take.
Um I never said anything about giving control to anyone… in fact I specifically said “voluntarily”… you seem like an angry person who is looking for things to be mad about. I’m not sure how you jumped to calling me a nazi.
I have thought about what I’m saying, have you? Unwanted pregnancies are something that by definition nobody wants. All I said was that this could be a way to address that, and you took that simple idea and ran to crazy town with it.
Because the population decline is mostly a western societal phenomenon induced by the late stage capitalism we are suffering from, and our planet dying from our carelessness. Other countries, especially poorer ones, are still happily making babies. So “population decline” effectively means the decline of western populations, and I can see how people (including me) might have an issue with that.
If all populations would shrink proportionally the same it would be a lot less contentious.
Even sub Saharan African fertility rates are dropping, so actually not
Lol go fuck yourself. You actual shitbag. There is one population on earth we should track: humans. Who fucking cares who they live today, losers like you I guess.
Ah yes I must be racist because I don’t think we should be replaced. How does that help the planet?