Overpopulation

A common concern about life extension is that we would rapidly overrun the planet, and without management, this could happen. However, there a few factors in our favour.

In many countries, fertility rates are already dropping below that required to maintain a population, and without immigration the number of people living there would be falling.

Even with biological immortality, if people were limited to one child each, then there would be a finite maximum population to deal with. And biological immortality does not mean fictional immortality - people will still die in accidents, conflict or by choice, meaning the global population would eventually start falling again.

We will have a lot of time to come up with a solution - the population won't double overnight, it might take a 100 years or so, and it's impossible to imagine what technologies may have been developed by then to help.

See also: Space Colonization

Overpopulation Blog Posts

Longevity and coping with an ever increasing population
07-Jul-2015