What if Human Reproduction took 3 times longer?

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4 years 5 months ago #344088 by ZealotX
Knowing our history, would humans have made it to the year 2020 if it took 3 times longer to reproduce?

All opinions welcome. Let's discuss.
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4 years 5 months ago - 4 years 5 months ago #344090 by Kohadre
Yes, and I think such a situation may have been in our better long-term interests.

The standard (average) length of gestation is nine months, give or take.

If it were to take almost two and a half years for a child to be born, from time of conception to birth; I'm not sure that human society would have been centered as much on war and conquest as it historically has been. I believe that the worth of human life would be substantially more than we presently know it to be, because the repercussions for loss of life would be far greater.

I also believe our medical and health infrastructure would be far more advanced, because again the price related to loss of life would be far more devastating in relation to disasters which are known to cause mass casualties; such as earthquake, flood, fire, etc.

So long and thanks for all the fish
Last edit: 4 years 5 months ago by Kohadre.
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4 years 5 months ago #344092 by ZealotX
@Kohadre

Exactly. Very well articulated.

Follow up question.

How do you think human behavior under that scenario would be different compared to the fictional premise of The Handmaid's Tale?
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4 years 5 months ago #344094 by Kohadre

ZealotX wrote: @Kohadre

Exactly. Very well articulated.

Follow up question.

How do you think human behavior under that scenario would be different compared to the fictional premise of The Handmaid's Tale?


I guess that would depend somewhat on the time period and availability of resources.

If you look at it from a developing society side of things, where tribes and clans are learning basic technologies such as farming and animal husbandry; I think women may be more likely to be treated as depicted in "the handmaids tale". However, there is also the option that in such a early society women could be elevated to near godhood; similar to matron deities in certain pagan cultures. In that case, women could likely be among the ruling and governing class of such cultures and societies.

Even within some Native American cultures, hierarchy is based primarily on matriarchy; where women are seen as the highest and most respected sources of authority. The women of these cultures are tasked with and given the responsibility to make all major decisions within their communities.

However, when you move over to a post industrialized society which has for the most part mastered all essential technologies and begun to develop advanced technologies such as computers, robotics, telephone; I think that the necessity to control reproduction will diminish to a substantial degree. Hopefully in such a situation, this would naturally carry over in additional liberties for Women and those tasked with childcare.

In either case, I think there would be a legitimate possibility of a "guardian" societal class similar to the guards shown in the aforementioned show. Such individuals would likely be trained over a long term period, possibly selected at birth for the task. Whether guards would be individually assigned, or rotated in groups would be another element to consider.

So long and thanks for all the fish
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4 years 5 months ago #344095 by ZealotX
@Kohadre

again. Another excellent response. You're good at abstract thinking.

So again... with the premise being human reproduction took 3 times longer and let's say this is not a sudden change or shift. It is from the very beginning like you were thinking out in your first response.

Would we even develop the very concept of warfare as a... kind of an avatar of collective violence. What I mean by that is a single person kills another person, its murder and that comes from some personal motivation. A tribe or nation kills another tribe or nation and its "war" and that typically comes from a group motivation or the personal motivation of a leader representing that group.

but how might things have developed different if human reproduction took 3 times longer since you know there would be less people because you're not over lapping generations quite as much. Parents would be that much older when they actually had the child and would have the added benefit of extra time for their own maturity.

So in the macro sense you've already wisely reasoned that there might be less war if any. But on the micro sense would that translate to less violence over all, and if there's less violence over all would the need to develop defense equally change? Would weapons have developed the same? Would tactics be the same? Would people even know how to fight? Especially if women were in charge (and I'm not saying that would be good or bad).

Would battle be replaced by an emphasis on talking and sharing feelings?

And of course women making the decisions, if they weren't choosing men based on their need for protection, would they simply use their choice of who to mate with to structure society in a completely different way and what would that look like? More competition? More cooperation? What might it look like?
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4 years 5 months ago #344097 by TheDude
I believe the population would be much lower and an illness such as the plague would be more likely to cause extinction.

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4 years 5 months ago #344098 by ZealotX
woah...interesting.


But with less people would we have the same relationship to sickness and disease that we do now?

If life was treated as something more precious and societies knew they could easily end because of illness and disease wouldn't that motivate more research into health, better nutrition, and more focus on clean water etc.? Instead of concentrating on curing illness perhaps they would concentrate on prevention. The profit motive would be, in my mind, superseded by the instinct to survive, and healthcare would get funded probably more than how the military is funded today.

Think about this.

According to CMS.gov we're spending $3.5 trillion in healthcare or $10,739 pp. Of course this includes the overhead and profit margins of both hospitals, drug companies, and insurance companies because since healthcare is almost a requirement hospitals know they can charge more and pass it on to the insurance companies who don't mind that much because they pass it on to their consumers and manage to still make a profit. By the same token Trump requested $639 billion in defense spending. We spend around another $100 billion on policing and another $80 billion on incarceration. And all these numbers COULD be lower with different laws in place. I'm not trying to argue this stuff but rather get us to think about vastly different possibilities where money was put to other uses. How much would prevention cost vs dealing with people who are already sick, morbidly obese, etc.? And you can minimize the threat to those smaller human populations by meeting the survival needs of each individual through cooperation rather than competition and survival of the "fittest". At some point we should evolve to the point that fittest means operating collectively the same way that a single human body has almost 40 trillion cells. I've never seen an ant colony with a prison.

So I wonder how much we could minimize the threat to human life if human life was harder or took longer to reproduce.
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4 years 5 months ago #344099 by ZealotX

So I wonder how much we could minimize the threat to human life if human life was harder or took longer to reproduce.


case in point. I remember when I found out that Magic Johnson had contracted HIV. I remember kind of feeling sorry for him like he wouldn't have long to live and we'd lose a basketball legend and icon.

To my utter shock, this man has lived with HIV longer than a bunch of other people lived who I thought were healthy. Do you realize that was 1991!?!?

That's freakin' unbelievable. It makes you wonder if:
1. was he misdiagnosed?
2. is there some secret multi-million dollar cure?
3. did he make a pact with the devil?
4. is there some secret multi-million dollar cure?

But because he wanted to live and his life is precious to him he changed his way of living to give him the best chance at survival and he did it!

I think a side effect of this discussion just might be that we start to expose how spoiled we, as humans, can be just taking for granted the freedoms we have and the freedoms we waste because there's just so many of us that we don't have to care how many individual humans survive, or how, or what the quality of that survival is. We have the benefit and privilege of having billions of us and so if you or I don't figure all this stuff out, all of our problems out, what does it matter because wont one of the other 7-8 billion of us do it?

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4 years 5 months ago #344100 by Amaya
Lol
There would be less woman willing to have children..
Nine months is more than enougth
And the birth...... oh geez the birth
Nope I for sure wouldnt of had kids.

Everything is belief
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4 years 5 months ago #344102 by ZealotX

elizabeth wrote: Lol
There would be less woman willing to have children..
Nine months is more than enougth
And the birth...... oh geez the birth
Nope I for sure wouldnt of had kids.


See? Excellent contribution. I hadn't even considered that angle. Thank you!

As a man... I'm trying to be careful here because a woman's opinion in naturally far more weighty on this subject than my own... but... I think.... based on what I've heard... that 9 month period is also a bonding period that the mother forms with the child. I could also be wrong but I think the longer that period is the more that mother may potentially bond with and be connected to their offspring. I think a lot of women say they will never have kids. My sister said it and now she has two. And if everyone took over 2 years and you didn't even know it could take less time so you didn't have anything to compare it to... would you still feel that way? Isn't that time relative? It only takes dogs and cats 58-68 days to gestate new offspring. Knowing this, would you say "no, 9 months is just too long!" ?

And what if the pot was sweetened and once you got pregnant you were assigned .... not slaves but indentured servants to wait on you hand and foot? I mean I've had a butler suite at a sandals resort and let me tell you... that was almost worth me getting pregnant. I'm kidding of course.

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