Do you remember that scene from The Matrix where Neo finds himself bald and naked in one of the goop-filled pods(synthetic wombs), signifying his rebirth into the world of Matrix? Well, it might not be that far away from reality after all!
Quite a few prominent tech entrepreneurs have been exploring the possibility of replacing natural birth with synthetic wombs, sighting certain positive impacts it might have on women, wealth inequality, and humanity overall.
How did ‘synthetic wombs’ become a conversational topic?
On Tuesday, 18th Jan 2022, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk commented saying, “should be much more worried about population collapse,”; his fellow tech leaders came up with a plausible solution for declining birth rates!
Sahil Lavingia, the founder of digital product trading platform Gumroad, proposed, “We should be investing in technology that makes having kids much faster/easier/cheaper/more accessible… Synthetic wombs, etc,”
Vitalik Buterin, the founder of the cryptocurrency Ethereum agreed with Sahil saying that this would reduce the “burden of pregnancy” in women allowing them to work more!
How are people reacting to the concept?
While some people are in favor of the concept of outsourcing pregnancy, mostly it received negative impacts ranging from the concept being called “dystopian” being compared to the lab-grown babies in Matrix.
See the full thread here!
A journalist named Amil Niazi twitted:
“The reason the majority of ppl [are] choosing not to have kids aren’t having them is not because they’re lacking quick and easy synthetic wombs it’s because it increasingly feels like you need to be a millionaire to have them.”
The bottom line
While moving towards evolution, we will often find ourselves in the dilemma of choosing the tech evolution or the good old days! But we can definitely be more than silent spectators. Join the conversation!
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