this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2026
251 points (98.5% liked)

Technology

43561 readers
302 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 76 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's definitely not healthy, but this isn't going to fix the birth rate.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Correlation <> causation meme

[–] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 month ago

This probably won’t fix anything, but hopefully stops it from contributing to the issue further down the line

…meme

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 51 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Make babies! It's illegal to be lonely!

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 16 points 1 month ago (2 children)

And wasn't China very recently concerned about their birthrate being too high? One Child Policy?

Now they're already concerned about their birth rate being too low?

[–] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 39 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The one-child policy was abolished in 2015, but birth rates have continued to decline after that. They currently have one of the world's lowest fertility rates.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 4 points 1 month ago

It's crazy, like overpopulation, stress, and pollution mean people don't want kids or something.

[–] YeahToast@aussie.zone 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Well yes, but also no. I think it was only really heavily policed in the 70s and early 80s then was lifted so regional and rural could have a second child (wiki says by '84 the single child policy only impacted 35% of the population). Still goes to show by forcibly dropping birthrates how much it destroys future planning

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Still goes to show by forcibly dropping birthrates how much it destroys future planning.

Looking at all the other countries, it may not have had an impact on future birthrates at all.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

They were wrong, and they know it, but also nobody's allowed to say that. Ditto for a bunch of other Mao policies.

[–] DeLancre@piefed.social 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] Trev625@sopuli.xyz 23 points 1 month ago

It says that it was proposed... We propose a lot of bills that never pass here in the US. I'm not sure how China's laws are setup but Wikipedia doesn't say that it was ever implemented.

[–] morto@piefed.social 9 points 1 month ago

6% of income? Still much cheaper than a kid!

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 49 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

It’s clearly not a healthy thing to exist.

It is the worst of para social relationships, amped up by 100x. And is only going to get more exploitative.

But just on a level of building up the skills to have a relationship, it’s training kids to expect someone who always says yes, always affirms them, will never challenge them to grow…

Relationships are hard. You have to learn to love people and how to do that, and you have to learn to not be selfish, which is the opposite of what LLMs tend to encourage.

[–] newtraditionalists@beehaw.org 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Most importantly, you have to love imperfect people. And confront that you are imperfect as well. And thats ok!

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

And is only going to get more exploitative.

Oh shit, if you came to see this as an actual loved one, adding a paywall would be legal kidnapping for ransom.

[–] Elting@piefed.social 40 points 1 month ago

That will fix it.

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You know what else fixes the birth rate? Making life less shitty and giving people enough money to be able to raise children.

In the meantime, negative birth rate is just self-correction of asshole dictatorships. Can't make money line go up if birth line go down.

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 month ago

Sperm counts are tanking worldwide while PFAS chems are being legalized and clean energy projects are shut down in favor of fossil fuels. Nature doesn't gaf, and will correct the unhealthy scenario. Humans are not the fittest if they destroy their own species by toxifying the environment. There's only so much we can do with a sperm count of zero. Even in a handmaid's tale scenario, a multiple of zero is zero.

[–] Teknikal@anarchist.nexus 18 points 1 month ago

I kind of think everywhere probably should, that's probably the strangest thing it's like falling in love with a microwave.

[–] artifex@piefed.social 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Black market GFs that shit is going to be unhinged.

[–] Sabata11792@ani.social 4 points 1 month ago

Psst, you looking for some banned waifus?

[–] AlteE@programming.dev 10 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Declining social and economic conditions affect birthrates more than this.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] Kwakigra@beehaw.org 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I think a lot of world problems would be solved if these things were encouraged instead. If someone needs their romantic partner to be a mindless sycophant, I would rather them have that with a machine than try to abuse a human person into serving them as would be more traditional. More children being born in situations other than exploitation and manipulation could only be a good thing.

[–] isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You need to think of human beings as less binary good and binary evil.

[–] Kwakigra@beehaw.org 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm sure people who abuse their family members have plenty of good qualities as well. I'm not sure how that's relevant to what I said.

[–] isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And for every 1 monster you remove from society by locking them in an AI mind prison, you'll ruin the lives of a hundred innocent people.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is the same logic used for child sex dolls and other material consumed by paedophiles

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 8 points 1 month ago

Yeah, sure.

And I wouldn't be so pissed at Epstein and Trump and the rest of the pedophile class if they were just trafficking sex dolls.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There's a lot of problems with this, and declining birth rates of the most invasive species on Earth isn't one of them.

[–] faintwhenfree@lemmus.org 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Bro think about Chinese economy please. Economy needs to survive bro..... Let go of your imaginery girl bro..... Treating your actual girlfriend like human is not mandatory bro...... Do it for patriotism bro....

[–] Zozano@aussie.zone 2 points 1 month ago

Can't the AI companies charge more while using the GPU heat to warm the in vitro babies they're growing in vats?

I'm pretty sure these babies will get lots of love from their AI parents.

load more comments
view more: next ›