Please read MacAskill or someone else on this topic. They argue for more people in Western countries and in this century not for galaxy-brained reasons but rather mundane reasons, that have little to do with their overall long-termism. Roughly, for them, it seems that having more people in Western countries this century lowers the risk of the “great stagnation”.
Also, if long-termism is wrong, but sentientism is still right, and we are not going to over-live AGI (but not too soon, but let’s say in 100 years), it’s good to produce more happy-ish sentient observers why we are here and AGI hasn’t yet over-taken the planet.
But fertility in many parts of the world is still quite high, so that seems unlikely.
Fertility rate drops across the globe rapidly. If Africa is lifted out of poverty and insufficient education through some near-term AI advances, we may see a really rapid and precipitous decline in population. Elon Musk actually worries quite a lot about this risk and advocates everyone to have more kids (he himself has 10).
Please read MacAskill or someone else on this topic. They argue for more people in Western countries and in this century not for galaxy-brained reasons but rather mundane reasons, that have little to do with their overall long-termism. Roughly, for them, it seems that having more people in Western countries this century lowers the risk of the “great stagnation”.
Also, if long-termism is wrong, but sentientism is still right, and we are not going to over-live AGI (but not too soon, but let’s say in 100 years), it’s good to produce more happy-ish sentient observers why we are here and AGI hasn’t yet over-taken the planet.
Fertility rate drops across the globe rapidly. If Africa is lifted out of poverty and insufficient education through some near-term AI advances, we may see a really rapid and precipitous decline in population. Elon Musk actually worries quite a lot about this risk and advocates everyone to have more kids (he himself has 10).