Isaac Asimov: Science, Technology and Space

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PLOWBOY: Then wouldn't you say that we're at a bottleneck right now? Isn't it true that there's no possible way to expand into space quickly enough to alleviate the problems of Earth's population growth?

ASIMOV: That's right. In the next half-century we can put, at most, tens of thousands of people into space. But if we continue to multiply as we're doing now, we'll add billions of individuals to the planet's population. So we have to solve that problem right here on Earth.

PLOWBOY: Do you have any ideas as to how we might best deal with overpopulation?

ASIMOV: There are only two methods: We can either increase the death rate or decrease the birth rate. Unless we use our ingenuity to lower the world's birth rate, we'll face the fate of every species that outgrows its food supply . . . and die off as a result of famine, disease, predation, and so on.

We must, therefore, lower the birth rate . . . and I think the best means of doing so is through universal voluntary contraception. To me, the logical way to achieve that goal is to give women something to do besides having a lot of children. Most societies have never allowed women to do anything important other than bear offspring. After all, during most of history, death rates were high . . . infant mortality rates were tremendous . . . and life expectancy was low. So people had to produce a lot of children or the race would have died out.

Now, however, we've reversed the situation. The death rate is low, infant mortality is low, life expectancy is high, and we're going to destroy the Earth if we continue to reproduce at the present rate. So we should make it respectable for women not to have a lot of children.

Of course, my proposal is essentially the same as one of the key goals of the women's liberation movement. I've even been pronounced a radical feminist: not because I love women, although I do . . . and not because I think women's liberation is just and fair and decent, although I do . . . but because I believe we have to liberate women if the race is to survive.

PLOWBOY: But finding rewarding work for women would be easier in a prospering country like ours than in a poor land which isn't even able to keep many of its present work force employed.

ASIMOV: That is a problem. So what we have to do is go through a very difficult transition period in which we gradually distribute the food supply and goods of the world as evenly as possible. The prosperous nations will likely have to go through some hard times for the sake of the impoverished countries, an eventuality which will surely strike the people in the wealthy lands as unfair.

But then, every year when income tax comes due, I realize that I pay a lot of money to the government and get back very little in actual cash benefits . . . whereas poor people pay virtually nothing to the government and get unemployment compensation and all sorts of welfare services. So I think, "My God, they take from me and give to them. It's so unfair." But no, it's not unfair! Because, you see, I'm getting the advantages of a stable society as a result of the exchange!

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