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Greetings, people of OA
#2
Hi! Welcome to OA!

The short answer to your question is that the vast majority of the population in OA practices birth control.

Birth control technology itself is virtually perfect and requires no actual effort to use - people (regardless of gender or species or whatever0 are either genetically engineered or equipped with internal medical systems that provide them conscious control over their fertility. All parents involved (and in OA two parents is just a lifestyle choice) must actively want to conceive a child before one can be conceived.

Beyond this, the standard of living is so high that there is no need to produce children to take care of oneself in old age or the like (people don't age unless they want to anyway). Indeed, in most places (and for thousands of years) the general ethos that is in place (and is quietly maintained by the cultural manipulation of the transapients) is that it is preferable to keep population low and standards of living extremely high.

Re the 6kW you mention in your post - by way of comparison people in the US back in the 80s were estimated to be consuming about 20kW and that number has almost certainly increased as well as the number of people consuming more energy. Point being that 6kW per person would be a very low energy and therefore likely low tech/low resource lifestyle even by our standards. While it's certainly likely that many of the future tech in the setting is much more efficient than what we can create now, there are also limits to that and also people in OA routinely engage in activities use energy consumption dwarfs what we engage in today (fast interplanetary and interstellar travel, megaengineering projects, etc.).

Finally, and moving a bit beyond the setting itself to more 'editorial' issues - human beings (and the various non-human sophonts in the setting) are not bacteria in a bowel, able to only mindlessly reproduce until we hit the limits of our environment. Even in real life increased living standards, education, and options/opportunities for both men and women have led to declining birth rates and slowed population growth that is projected to stabilize this century IIRC.

Hope this helps and once again - Welcome to OA Smile

Todd

EDIT - there are a few places that have not practiced birth control in the setting - they don't end well and are looked at by everyone else as cautionary tales of what happens when you don't control your population and manage your resources. They are also actively contained - by force if necessary - if they attempt to spread.

See Cinder Systems
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Messages In This Thread
Greetings, people of OA - by Rho Ophiuchi - 08-17-2021, 07:49 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Drashner1 - 08-17-2021, 09:02 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Rho Ophiuchi - 08-17-2021, 09:22 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Drashner1 - 08-17-2021, 11:05 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Rho Ophiuchi - 08-17-2021, 11:22 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Drashner1 - 08-17-2021, 11:38 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Rho Ophiuchi - 08-17-2021, 11:51 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by AstroChara - 08-17-2021, 11:51 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by AstroChara - 08-17-2021, 09:59 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Drashner1 - 08-17-2021, 10:49 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Worldtree - 08-18-2021, 12:26 AM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Rho Ophiuchi - 08-17-2021, 10:53 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Drashner1 - 08-17-2021, 11:19 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by selden - 08-18-2021, 12:08 AM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Rho Ophiuchi - 08-18-2021, 12:41 AM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Worldtree - 08-18-2021, 01:11 AM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Rho Ophiuchi - 08-18-2021, 01:32 AM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by selden - 08-18-2021, 12:46 AM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Drashner1 - 08-18-2021, 02:04 AM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Rho Ophiuchi - 08-18-2021, 05:35 AM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Worldtree - 08-18-2021, 02:28 AM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Worldtree - 08-18-2021, 08:10 AM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Rho Ophiuchi - 08-18-2021, 08:57 AM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Worldtree - 08-18-2021, 09:43 AM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Rho Ophiuchi - 08-18-2021, 10:52 AM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Worldtree - 08-18-2021, 11:36 AM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by AstroChara - 08-18-2021, 10:48 AM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Drashner1 - 08-18-2021, 11:27 AM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Rho Ophiuchi - 08-18-2021, 07:37 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by AstroChara - 08-18-2021, 08:37 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Rho Ophiuchi - 08-18-2021, 08:51 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Rynn - 08-18-2021, 09:07 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Rho Ophiuchi - 08-18-2021, 09:31 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Rynn - 08-18-2021, 10:53 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Rynn - 08-18-2021, 07:01 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by AstroChara - 08-18-2021, 10:08 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Rynn - 08-18-2021, 10:54 PM
RE: Greetings, people of OA - by Rho Ophiuchi - 08-18-2021, 11:33 PM

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