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What China might be able to do is to invent artificial wombs (they are scientifically plausible and some work on them has already been done, but obvious ethical issues are acting as a brake on their development) and try to rear the resulting kids in some kind of communal schools. That would not probably work either, but it is possible. They have definitely tried worse things before in China.

China invested a lot in biotechnology and has few ethical concerns in this regard. This scenario might be within the realm of possibility for them.




Just getting weirder and weirder. Now Chinese society is not only a totalitarian government that can command all aspects of human life in their country (narrator: "they can't"), they can make things that are current impossible-even-in-mammals (e.g. lamb fetuses) work in humans. It seems equally plausible that they might cure aging, instead, which would certainly solve the workforce problem.


"they can make things that are current impossible"

The word for that is "invention" and I believe I used it in correct meaning (not a native speaker of English). There is nothing unthinkable about artificial wombs, though it is obviously hard. The research runs in Western countries as well. If Western scientists thought it was principially impossible to construct such devices ever, they wouldn't probably spend their time and grant money on fiddling around that concept.

Now China has a) a lot of classified research, b) fewer ethical concerns, c) is aware about their future demographic problems stemming from One Child Policy. I would be surprised if they did not at least try this approach.

As for curing aging, the longevity field seems to be more developed in the West so far, even though their aims are more modest - prolonging the healthspan by, say, 8-10 years. While not a solution, such progress would definitely buy some time.

Interestingly, there is a very niche subset of longevity research that looks into reproductive health of women over 40. It is possible, though far from certain, that oocyte quality could be improved even in older women - where aneuploidy is otherwise a big problem.


This is a submission about ARM. Don't stray too far off the topic.


Brave New World?




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