Elon Musk, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Sahil Lavignia discuss ways to boost population, moot 'synthetic wombs'

Vitalik Buterin said synthetic wombs would remove the high burden of pregnancy.

After billionaire Elon Musk expressed concern about “population collapse”, saying that if there are not enough people for Earth, there certainly will not be enough for Mars, many people chimed in with suggestions for the Tesla chief , including the use of synthetic or artificial wombs that could potentially develop a foetus outside the human body.

Elon Musk, who is also the founder of aerospace company SpaceX, has often spoken about his dream of building cities on Mars. The world’s richest man believes that settling humans on other planets could preserve the civilisation if Earth were to experience a cataclysm. Making life multi-planetary is the founding principle of SpaceX.

In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Musk said the world should be much more worried about “population collapse”.

Vitalik Buterin, the 27-year-old crypto billionaire and the co-founder of ethereum, pointed out that disparities in economic success between men and women are far larger when marriage and children are factored in. “Synthetic wombs would remove the high burden of pregnancy, significantly reducing the inequality,” he tweeted, replying to Musk.

Disparities in economic success between men and women are far larger once marriage+children enter the picture. Synthetic wombs would remove the high burden of pregnancy, significantly reducing the inequality.https://t.co/Zpin8tTlR6

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 18, 2022

“We should be investing in technology that makes having kids much faster/easier/cheaper/more accessible. Synthetic wombs, etc,” tweeted Sahil Lavingia, the Indian-origin founder and CEO of Gumroad, a start-up that allows creators to earn money by helping them monetise their work.

We should be investing in technology that makes having kids much faster/easier/cheaper/more accessible

Synthetic wombs, etc

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— Sahil Lavingia (@shl) January 18, 2022

“UN projections are utter nonsense,” Musk claimed. “Just multiply last year’s births by life expectancy. Given downward trend in birth rate, that is best case unless reversed.”

In 2019, the United Nations had said that the world’s population was expected to increase by 2 billion persons in the next 30 years.
The World Population Prospects 2019 had concluded that the global population could reach its peak around the end of the current century at nearly 11 billion.

The United Nations had added that though global population continued to increase, growth rates across regions were different.