> It brings to mind something I heard once or
>twice growing up that I never confirmed to be
>truth. Is it true that citizens of China are--
>or were at one time--restricted to having only
>one child? I understand that population control
>is a problem they face, but it seems that number
>of offspring should not be governmentally
>regulated.

Yes, this is/was true. I think it's still going on. From what I understand, you have to apply for a permit to have a baby. Or maybe just to have one beyond the first one. As an aside, I've heard the rate of infanticide has gone way up in China, at least for female babies. Since they are only allowed one child without special permit, and since male children are still valued above female children in Chinese society, some people apparently choose to kill their firstborn daughters in order to be able to keep trying for a son.

> This brings to mind another question. In the
>event that population control would have to be
>enforced on a global scale, and there was yet no
>successful colonization of other
>planets/moons/space stations/etc., would you
>deny others the right to procreate to exercise
>your right of immortality?

That's a really great question to ponder. Personally, I'm still grappling with whether I would even accept physical immortality if it were offered, so I can't really answer this question. But it's definitely something that will have to be considered. Even if we're not talking about "immortality" but simply ever-increasing life spans, there comes a point where birthrate and deathrate will be far out of proportion to each other. I see our medical advancements coming along much quicker than our space colonization advances, so I feel this is exactly the kind of question we'll have to deal with sometime in the next hundred years or so.

> One more question (hypothetical and
>speculatory, of course): How long must one live
>to grow weary of life?

That depends entirely on the person. I'm sure there are some people who could happily live for millenia without getting bored or tired, while others, as you say, get sick of life after 20 years or so. It's not a question with a real answer.

As for why people grow bored with "life", I think that also depends on the person. A 20 year old bored of life is far more likely to have a mental disorder such as depression as the culprit. An elderly person is probably reacting to all the daily aches and pains that go along with being old, and they wish to simply be free of those thigns. If all of those issues were cleared up, and life spans become ever longer, what meaning would "bored of life" or "wanting for it to end" really mean? As a guess, I'd say people might start feeling that way if they felt there was nothing worth striving for anymore. A lot of people define themselves by goals they set for themselves. Once you've accomplished your goals, what then? New goals? What if you've finally accomplished absolutely everything you ever even wanted to do? Do you then start doing things you never had any interest in, or even actively dislike? I don't know. That novel that Stephen talks about at the beginning of this thread deals with some of those questions in a quite frightening manner. It's an interesting read.

-- Dave