this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2026
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Technology

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[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 76 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 19 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Correlation <> causation meme

[–] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 9 points 6 days ago

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

…meme

[–] INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Black market GFs that shit is going to be unhinged.

[–] Sabata11792@ani.social 4 points 4 days ago

Psst, you looking for some banned waifus?

[–] AlteE@programming.dev 9 points 4 days ago (5 children)

Declining social and economic conditions affect birthrates more than this.

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[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 49 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days 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 6 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 16 hours ago

mayhaps even use it as a motivation to improve 👉👈

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days 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.

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 51 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Make babies! It's illegal to be lonely!

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 16 points 6 days 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 6 days 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.

[–] YeahToast@aussie.zone 3 points 4 days 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 4 days 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.

[–] YeahToast@aussie.zone 1 points 4 days ago

Yeah true regarding birthrates.. but I think it probably catapulted median age

This website states that in 1960 median age was around 20 (comparable internationally), median age in 2025 was 42( international was 31)

[–] Anivia@feddit.org 1 points 4 days ago

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

Yes, and if they didn't have the policy in the past, then today's birth rates would be even more devastating for the demographic

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

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days 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 6 days ago (2 children)
[–] Trev625@sopuli.xyz 23 points 6 days 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 6 days ago

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

[–] Elting@piefed.social 40 points 6 days ago

That will fix it.

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 6 days 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.

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 6 days 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 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com 12 points 6 days ago (2 children)
[–] terranoid@lemmy.cafe 9 points 6 days ago (3 children)

this will just spin up a blackmarket waifu market

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 16 hours ago

how the fuck is anyone taking these discussions seriously lmao

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

At least if more people ended up doing this on their own hardware with open source software, it would cut off a lot of the opportunities it presents for companies to abuse people's privacy and manipulate them.

[–] Sabata11792@ani.social 2 points 4 days ago

Not your hardware, not your girlfriend. Cloud AI only love you for your money.

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[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 1 points 4 days ago

this kinda ties in with Tom Murphy's recent blog post

https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2026/06/the-smartphone-hypothesis/

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 4 points 6 days 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 6 days 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....

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