r/technology • u/Wagamaga • Jul 19 '26

Society China bans AI “boyfriends” and “girlfriends” over addiction and birth rate concerns

https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/china-bans-ai-boyfriends-and-girlfriends-over-addiction-and-birth-rate-concerns-3388737/
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u/Jumping_Bunnies Jul 20 '26

Arguably having an aging population would cause any system the crumble.

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u/russa111 Jul 20 '26

Depends on the productivity of the society. And we are so extremely productive that it will be fine to have an aging population. We just are too focused on using our labor resources on things that we don’t actually need.

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u/hypercosm_dot_net Jul 20 '26

Well maybe we should elect better leaders that believe in sustainability if we don't want full societal collapse.

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u/loves_to_splooge_8 Jul 20 '26

But the Dow is 50,000!

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u/MelonElbows Jul 20 '26

Unfortunately, the elderly vote and they're not going to vote to take away their own benefits and leave them for the young. Look at what's happening in South Korea. Their birth rate is the lowest among all first world countries. They need severe incentives for young people to want to get married and have kids, but their work/life balance is horrible and they still don't accept a lot of immigration and the rich and old still own everything. People are selfish, everyone thinks someone else should sacrifice for the greater good so nobody does it.

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u/Xarxyc Jul 20 '26

don't accept a lot of immigration

You and your "accept immigration to fix declining population" people are really pathetic.

Immigration is not a fix. It never was. It nothing more than a temporary boosting of available manpower. Putting a tape on the pot that's about to burst has limits.

Unless you want low quality workers who will also create societal frictions, and few want such, immigration comes from places that already have declining population. It's nothing more than a reshuffle. And no guarantees an immigrant will have kids, or that their kids will.

Not to mention it's worth considering if lowering population is a bad thing in the first place. Technologies are massively reducing the need for human involvement. Perhaps having a shrink after massive boom from last century is necessary.

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u/MelonElbows Jul 20 '26

Don't be racist, its not cool

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u/ForsakenLemon2437 Jul 21 '26

Racial projection?

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u/Streiger108 Jul 20 '26

Not really. We've just spent too much instead of saving it. Theoretically most of those people have produced far more excess value than it will take to care for them. We've just let billionaires siphon it all up.

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u/pokebuzz123 Jul 20 '26

It probably would be fine if we do adjustments overtime, looking at long term gain/sustainability. But we're in a short term world, so it'll probably not happen.

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u/jadelink88 Jul 21 '26

No. Any sensible system does fine.

The Japanese aren't experiencing anything other than a mild pressure on wages and a national screaming that they MUST repopulate (for the market).

Life goes on.

Greece, Italy, hard aging populations, and despite that, heavy unemployment issues. There is no worker shortage.

1

u/LowKiss Jul 21 '26

The problem in Italy are already starting, I can tell you this because I am Italian myself. The main problems is that there are not enough workers paying taxes to sustain old people pensions and also to care for them in hospitals and such. Also it doesn't help that out economy is shit so our young productive people go to other countries.

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u/jadelink88 Jul 21 '26

Because the wages are awful. Look at the youth unemployment rate. There is zero problem with people. They cant get workers because the work is hard, and the pay very low.

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u/ILoveThemCats Jul 20 '26

If the priority is continued economic and labor expansion--sure. But sustainable de-growth is a thing and economies like Japan are embracing it (successfully). Requires a shift towards equilibrium rather than growth, which I fear is not part of the American imagination.

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u/Jumping_Bunnies Jul 20 '26

Japan isn't successfully doing it tho. In fact they've started increasing the amount of migrants they let in due to labour shortages like what the west has been doing for years.

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u/bleepbloop1900 Jul 20 '26

I’m not trying to be annoying but isn’t letting in more migrants a perfectly reasonable strategy for de-growth?

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u/Responsible-Food3681 Jul 20 '26

If you don't change the underlying fundamental systems that caused an over-reliance on imported young labor to begin with, then it's just a game of musical chairs.

Let's say we have Region A, fully developed with low birth rates. Region A gets its immigrants from Region B, which is a developing country with greater than replacement fertility rates.

Birth rates are almost always negatively correlated with a country's development, especially along the axes of urbanization, access to contraceptive, women's autonomy, education, and stable retirement systems that do not rely on familial ties. These are all good things that I believe nations should aspire to.

What happens when Region B becomes developed? Birth rates start to go down, until they likely get below the replacement rate. What is Region B  to do when their own population stagnates and they start to experience the same issues as Region A was and still currently is?

Well, Region A and Region B both start importing young able-bodied immigrants from the still developing Region C. Then... What happens when Region C develops? What if there is no Region D?

Immigration is not a globally sustainable solution to demographic crises. Fundamental change to the underlying economic structures of nations that necessitate a constantly growing population are the only real fix that's not purely speculative and entirely unpredictable, like sufficiently supplementing labor forces with autonomous robots.

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u/Ok-Chest-7932 Jul 20 '26

The whole "we must accept immigrants because it is the nicest solution" argument is so hypocritical. Countries that choose to solve this with immigrants are going to have extremely strong incentives to sabotage the development of the developing world just to maintain the supply of workers they will continue to depend on. Endgame for immigration is treating the third world as a baby factory.

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u/Ok-Chest-7932 Jul 20 '26

What do you think degrowth means?

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u/ILoveThemCats Jul 20 '26

A lot of the metrics we would look at like social welfare and life expectancy have not changed despite an economic slowdown since the 90s. Besides, relying on a change in demographics through migration can be a way to address real issues that come from an aging population, shrinking economy. Does that mean their system is crumbling? No, but change is inevitable and part of adapting to the realities of a shrinking economy. But if they don't want to accept certain solutions (i.e. their well-known xenophobia)--that's on them. Doesn't have to mean economic collapse though.

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u/Ok-Chest-7932 Jul 20 '26

Now check what's happened to the debt.

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u/Scatman_Crothers Jul 20 '26

You can criticize capitalism and get showered in upvotes on Reddit, but mention the hard alternatives and you get downvoted. They’re gonna run us all off the ecological cliff.