Even if it was the case that people ended up mostly having AI lovers rather than romantic relationships from humans, I don’t think it follows from that that the fertility rate would necessarily suffer.
The impression that I’ve gotten from popular history is that the strong association between reproduction and romantic love hasn’t always been the case and that there have been time periods where marriage existed primarily for the purpose of having children. More recently there’s been a trend in Platonic co-parenting, where people choose to have children together without having a romantic relationship. I personally have at least two of these kinds of co-parenting “couples” in my circle of acquaintances, as well as several more who have expressed some level of interest in it.
Given that it is already something that’s gradually getting normalized today, I’d expect it to become significantly more widespread in a future with AI partners. I would also imagine that the risk of something like a messy divorce or unhappy marriage would be significantly less for Platonic co-parents who were already in a happy and fulfilling romantic relationship with an AI and didn’t have romantic needs towards each other. As a result, a larger proportion of children born from such partnerships could have a safe and stable childhood than is the case with children born from contemporary marriages.
Does platonic co-parenting usually involve co-living, or it’s more often that parents live separately and either take care of the child on different days, or visit each other’s homes to play with kids?
I’m unsure what the most typical case is. Of the couples I know personally, one involves co-living and another intends to live separately once the child is no longer an infant.
(Upvoted for the detailed argument.)
Even if it was the case that people ended up mostly having AI lovers rather than romantic relationships from humans, I don’t think it follows from that that the fertility rate would necessarily suffer.
The impression that I’ve gotten from popular history is that the strong association between reproduction and romantic love hasn’t always been the case and that there have been time periods where marriage existed primarily for the purpose of having children. More recently there’s been a trend in Platonic co-parenting, where people choose to have children together without having a romantic relationship. I personally have at least two of these kinds of co-parenting “couples” in my circle of acquaintances, as well as several more who have expressed some level of interest in it.
Given that it is already something that’s gradually getting normalized today, I’d expect it to become significantly more widespread in a future with AI partners. I would also imagine that the risk of something like a messy divorce or unhappy marriage would be significantly less for Platonic co-parents who were already in a happy and fulfilling romantic relationship with an AI and didn’t have romantic needs towards each other. As a result, a larger proportion of children born from such partnerships could have a safe and stable childhood than is the case with children born from contemporary marriages.
Does platonic co-parenting usually involve co-living, or it’s more often that parents live separately and either take care of the child on different days, or visit each other’s homes to play with kids?
I’m unsure what the most typical case is. Of the couples I know personally, one involves co-living and another intends to live separately once the child is no longer an infant.