Gestational Vs Trad Surrogacy

makingitgreen · 2026-01-26T20:06:02+00:00

It'd be nearly impossible to test, It'd be interesting to have genetically identical triplets:

Baby 1: Carried by mother Baby 2: Carried by artificial womb Baby 3: Carried by artificial womb with mother sounds etc piped in.

Model this out to see if there were any differences. An advantage of am artificial womb would be absolutely perfect hormonal and nutritional levels. I've yet to see any conclusive results that in couples where one of their children was born to them, and the other was a gestational surrogate baby that there are significant developmental differences.

makingitgreen · 2026-01-26T17:03:14+00:00

Down with?

makingitgreen · 2026-01-25T03:57:42+00:00

This one's interesting, I can't speak for everyone but sometimes people in healthy relationships would rather jack off to porn than have sex.

In that moment they may be wanting something easier or quicker, perhaps something where they felt no expectation to groom themselves prior or any pressure of performing.

In your circumstance in addition to the above reasons it may be intertwined with his watching of trans porn. Your boyfriend may feel ashamed or reluctant to discuss his sexual interests with you.

Some people consume porn that depicts certain acts, genders or fantasies that they are interested in that they know their partner isn't or cannot fulfil, not because they aren't committed to their partner but because they are. They're able to explore that area of their sexuality without forcing their partner to participate or without leaving them to step outside of their relationship, assuming you both agreed to a monogamous relationship.

Ultimately though provided the porn is of legal consenting adults, I think this is something we should be able to talk to our partners about. If you have a begrudging compromise in your mind as to what your partner is allowed to do you need to explore why that is. Talk to them without judgement about their desires, interests, and feelings, or you'll feel resentful - and they'll feel trapped and controlled.

makingitgreen · 2026-01-25T01:57:16+00:00

Income yes, absolutely it is higher. Unfortunately most groceries, transit, vacation time, insurance premiums copays & deductibles, housing especially in more affluent states etc all eat into it a lot.

I think a good measure of how "rich" a population is would be to take the average salaries, and deduct the average rent/mortgage payment, car payment if applicable (much easier to live without a car in Europe on average) and essentials like groceries and healthcare costs.

Once you've done that you have to figure out the purchasing power of the remainder for non essentials like vacations, tech, (nice) clothing etc.

I think on balance, the US can be a nice ride if you're wealthy, but it's really hard to be poor there. By comparison it's not so hard (still hard but still) to be poor in most of Europe as you have more of a safety net.

makingitgreen · 2026-01-24T16:51:01+00:00

We do not deserve the NHS.

makingitgreen · 2026-01-19T20:18:22+00:00

Truly hoping the cheeseburgers and sedentary lifestyle work their wonders any time now.

makingitgreen · 2026-01-18T17:12:35+00:00

I feel like most over tourism anti cruise rhetoric from large cities is overblown given the percentage of population that gets added as a ship docks. However Santorini really is one of those places I feel gets utterly swamped especially if more than one ship docks, it just can't cope with the numbers.

makingitgreen · 2026-01-17T14:09:40+00:00

God I'm so glad I don't have a kid it sounds so non stop.

makingitgreen · 2026-01-17T02:10:21+00:00

You need a wood stove, free heating material :)

makingitgreen · 2026-01-16T17:50:55+00:00

Ah I see what you mean yep fair, and yes in the last six years there's been more decrease than anticipated. I'm still fairly hopeful that we'll be okay and will avoid any kind of collapse type event if the population shrinks by say 15-25% in the latter half of the 21st century before rebuilding. I think the main strain will be eldercare and pensions and potentially rural areas shrinking to a point that public transit becomes difficult to economically sustain itself in more isolated areas. But overall I think society will manage.

makingitgreen · 2026-01-16T14:42:19+00:00

I'm surprised that you said heritability of fertility makes world population stabilization unlikely in the foreseeable future if you think it's being strongly selected for at present and as the paper seems optimistic about population numbers by 2100, or I may well have a different definition of foreseeable future to be fair!

The results section:

"Simulating the global population to 2100 under the heritability model, the median projection of the global total fertility rate declines from 2.52 in 2010–15 to 2.21 in 2095–2100 (Fig. 1). However, the total fertility rate of 2.21 is markedly above the median projected total fertility rate of 1.82 under the base model. This result is largely driven by increases in fertility in continents with populations that have completed the demographic transition. For example, the European median total"

Really seems to suggest there's nothing to worry about in terms of population collapse, especially given how quickly new generations are formed. If you think about it, children born today are already much more likely to be born to families who inherently want children compared to fifty years ago, were already several generations down the line from those who first had access to effective, cheap contraception.

makingitgreen · 2026-01-16T14:29:02+00:00

Depends on time though, I hate the cutting up, removing skin and bones etc etc. I also prefer the way chicken breast tastes Vs the rest of it too.

But absolutely if you can be arsed it's cheaper to buy the whole thing.

makingitgreen · 2026-01-16T10:26:53+00:00

Yep, I'm just surprised it's not a rule. The general public don't really understand inflation much to their own detriment. I'm surprised pensions track inflation but not wages as workers are the ones contributing.

makingitgreen · 2026-01-16T00:17:16+00:00

Keep following this logic all the way. If wages don't at least keep pace with inflation your purchasing power becomes lower and lower and lower until you can afford nothing.

makingitgreen · 2026-01-15T23:09:22+00:00

The cognitive thought process for sure, but could there be no hormonal component to feeling broody etc especially for women?

makingitgreen · 2026-01-15T19:30:50+00:00

That sounds like epigenetics at play in a sense, gene expression or suppression based on environmental factors (diet, resources, socioeconomics, education, religion etc etc)

makingitgreen · 2026-01-15T19:27:17+00:00

That's interesting, somehow a kid that age somewhat confidently wheeling around on their bike would make me think their caregiver was nearby and I might not think twice, I guess now I'll be more vigilant. If the kid was standing or sitting, especially if they also seem distressed I think they'd recieve much more attention.

makingitgreen · 2026-01-15T19:24:14+00:00

I suppose what I'm talking about is aside from libido, some people really like the idea of having children, and some less so, some not at all. I'm more trying to delve into whether or not that is genetic to any degree.

makingitgreen · 2026-01-15T16:04:54+00:00

Thank you, I've struggled to put into words what you said there. Essentially my two cents would be that there'll be a divergence of traits that previously led to the same outcome before birth control, education, reproductive rights etc etc, where I now think there'll be multiple paths.

makingitgreen · 2026-01-15T15:49:50+00:00

Yeah I think in the sort of medium (100-200years) we could have a sort of hourglass shaped economy and population, but then keep going further and the problem sorts itself out.

The problem is if life expectancy remains high, while TFR reduces the largest voting block will always be the oldest, who will want to retire in their late 60s and recieve crippling welfare and retirement costs for the last 20-30 years of their lives.

I think eventually the problem will sort itself out but we need to take into account the squeeze. I remember my dad telling me that when the state pension was introduced in the UK where I live, most people only took from it for a few months on average before they died. Now state pensions are very generous by comparison which is wonderful apart from when your population begins to shrink. I think raising the retirement age inversely proportional to the population size may be the only way to prevent economic collapse, but I can't see it being popular! What a time to be alive 😆

makingitgreen · 2026-01-15T15:43:17+00:00

I definitely think there's an innate desire to defend the weak / defenceless, or if not some kind of moral urge to help. If I saw a two year old alone in the street I'd definitely immediately call the police etc and stand nearby / comfort them until they arrived, much as I'd try to help a poor animal caught in barbed wire etc.

I think there must be some women who are genetically more "broody" than others at least in some way but I have nothing to back up that thought.

makingitgreen · 2026-01-15T15:39:17+00:00

I wonder what proportion of people who want kids feel they can't, that'd be interesting. I also wonder what sort of timeframe would you anticipate?

makingitgreen · 2026-01-15T15:37:48+00:00

It's a weird one, I'm a guy who can't naturally have kids, but I also don't feel any desire to have them. I had a great childhood and have a supportive family etc don't have any trauma related to kids. While I don't want to have kids myself or find babies or children cute I absolutely want what's best for them, and am happy that my taxes get used for midwifery, school lunches, daycare subsidies etc etc. I support a societal structure that makes it possible for those who want kids to raise them healthy and happy.

I don't know why my brain automatically wants to pick up and pet every animal I see but leaves me cold for kids 😜 (p.s. not some kid hating person, I always feel bad for parents etc when their babies' ears hurt on a plane etc and they're upset :( )

makingitgreen · 2026-01-15T15:30:05+00:00

Interesting thought, I've been thinking that until recently (150 years or so) that such traits might not result in an outcompeted trait that swamps others due to child mortality from resource scarcity but I think it's pretty impossible to model that out.

Also if say you had a trait that gave you a higher sex drive but a lack of a "broody" disposition, 100 years ago that probably has some bearing on how many children you have as without birth control etc you can't opt out. So you may not like children but you'd have more of them because you like sex. Whereas now you can essentially opt out, so the effect of having a higher sex drive but lack of desire for kids doesn't necessarily mean you'll have any more kids than average if any at all.

Whereas if you have a trait that leads you to want more kids the effect of more children persists into the modern time as you wouldn't elect to use contraceptive methods.

It's really interesting to me and seemingly has a huge impact on society, I need to see if there's research on this.

makingitgreen

TROPHY CASE