There are close to eight billion people in the world today, and that number is only going to go up.
With food uncertainty and dwindling natural resources, it stands to reason that we should slow population growth if possible.
But according to Elon Musk, we actually need to start having more babies, not less.
Look at it this way: A hundred years ago, there were 2 billion people on our planet.
By 1980, that number was around 4.5 billion. In 2010, we were closing in on 7 billion, and now there are a billion people more.
Speaking at the Wall Street Journal's CEO Council, the Tesla founder and multibillionaire spoke about how falling birthrates could, in his opinion, lead to the collapse of civilization.
Musk has six kids, so in his eyes, he's doing his part.
"I think one of the biggest risks to civilization is the low birthrate and the rapidly declining birthrate," he said.
"And yet so many people, including smart people, think that there are too many people in the world and think that the population is growing out of control. It's completely the opposite."
While humanity, or any species, needs to maintain a certain birthrate in order to perpetuate its existence, there are any number of existential threats to humankind that don't involve birthrates.
Musk was discussing how one of his inventions, the Tesla Bot, along with other artificial intelligence, could help labor shortages.
Of course, increased automation could lead to its own nightmare scenario. One in which there aren't nearly enough paid jobs for humans to do.
Musk is absolutely correct on this point. Despite the explosion in global population, World Bank data indicates that the global birthrate has been on the decline since 1960.
Still, this doesn't mean that the overall population is falling.
While Musk would like to see people have more kids, he thinks an aging population leads to issues of its own.
"I think it is important for us to die because most of the time, people don't change their mind, they just die," he explained.
"If [people] live forever, then we might become a very ossified society where new ideas cannot succeed," Musk explained.
"I'm not poking fun at aging. I just am saying if we've got people in very important positions that have to make decisions that are critical to the security of the country, then they need to have sufficient presence of mind and cognitive ability to make those decisions well."
Musk wants to see a larger, younger population that can embrace the technologies of the future.
That sounds great and all, but it doesn't even begin to get into the existential threats posed by food shortages, climate emergencies, and inequality.
Elon Musk is a polarizing figure, but he generally has an interesting perspective on humanity. Do you think we should be having more babies, not less?
h/t: Business Insider
