It’s an exciting time to be a futurist. After decades of relative stagnation, things finally seem to be happening. The rockets are launching again and are now landing on their tails, fusion energy is being taken seriously again, and many of us are paying a few dollars a month to use “AI” programs that would have been considered science fiction a decade ago.
Great dreams seem possible again. Expansion through the solar system, orbital colonies, cities on Mars, and the population growing to tens and even hundreds of billions off-world. Timelines seem to be collapsing and the speed of advancement seems to be exponentially increasing. Living adults might very well see the early stages of all this.
But despite the exciting technological advancements of the last few years, you might have noticed something disturbing: there just aren’t enough children in your social circle to even replace the current adults. Your extended family seems to shrink and winnow down with each generation. Just as we consider expanding off-world, we are losing the numbers to even expand on this planet.