{"id":269286,"date":"2022-06-03T10:38:07","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T15:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=269286"},"modified":"2022-06-02T18:08:34","modified_gmt":"2022-06-02T23:08:34","slug":"overpopulation-fears-virtual-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/overpopulation-fears-virtual-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Will overpopulation fears lead people to seek out ‘virtual children’?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The overpopulation myth has continued to spread, as people worry that climate change and human reproduction will destroy the planet. More and more people are openly joining the child-free movement<\/a>, but it hasn’t kept people from still feeling the need to have children of their own. The answer, some claim, is virtual children.<\/p>\n

Catriona Campbell, a behavioral psychologist and an authority in human-computer interaction (HCI), has written a book claiming<\/a> the future will consist of “Tamagotchi” children, named after the popular toy used by tweens in the late 90s.<\/p>\n

“Virtual children may seem like a giant leap from where we are now, but within 50 years technology will have advanced to such an extent that babies which exist in the metaverse are indistinct from those in the real world,” she wrote in her book, AI by Design: A Plan For Living With Artificial Intelligence<\/a>. “As the metaverse evolves, I can see virtual children becoming an accepted and fully embraced part of society in much of the developed world.”<\/p>\n

According to Campbell<\/a>, these “environmentally friendly” children will only exist on the internet, but will grow in real time and “come alive” when parents log on. So-called parents would use augmented reality (AR) glasses and haptic \u201ctouch-sensitive\u201d gloves to see, feel, and interact with their virtual children. Campbell suggested making the virtual children available through a Netflix-style subscription service.<\/p>\n

“We’re already well on our way to creating the Tamagotchi generation which, for all intents and purposes, will be ‘real’ to their parents,” she argued. “On the basis that consumer demand is there, which I think it will be, AI children will become widely available for a relatively small monthly fee. Make no mistake that this development, should it indeed take place, is a technological game-changer which, if managed correctly, could help us solve some of today’s most pressing issues, including overpopulation.”<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0\u2018Stop Having Kids\u2019 movement spreads across the US, calling for an end to human reproduction<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n