I really doubt this. Humanity is really good at surviving things.
My prediction - at a certain point, we gain the ability to port human brains to computers. The most wealthy gain this tech first, and effectively become immortal. Using their wealth (which is likely always accumulating) they are able to afford lots of redundency and good tech + energy to function at extremely high levels of performance - essentially making them immortal gods. I assume they will form alliances and rivalries, and stake out ground based on the now-general-intelligence AIs they have created.
Most people who choose transhumanism after this will need to utilize their afterlife continuing to work in order to pay for the ongoing cost of running their servers.
Meanwhile, humans still made of meat will have started conducting experiments on their genetics. Initially this will be about simply reducing or removing the chance of carrying a genetic disease. But soon they will start working on how to generally be better than others - improved cognitive abilities; sexier, stronger bodies; improved emotional regulation. Not long after, it will start being considered irresponsible to have children without the standard genetic modifications that the middle class can afford. Permanent class stratifications will be etched into dna. Even further along, the rich take genetic modification into fashion, creating physical markers of class stratification which will gradually make them look less human. As genetic class differences widen, there will be increasing class wars - in each one, the upper classes and those aligned with them will eliminate more and more of the lower classes. Slavery will also make a comeback, as those without genetic modifications (or with sufficiently lesser modifications) will be deemed too irresponsible to manage their own affairs and function in society. The descendents of the ultra-rich transhumanist gods, who will have the best and most fashionable genetic modifications, will be the first to achieve immortality in the flesh. But there will probably develop a sort of cultural expectation that they eventually give up their flesh and become transhumans like their anscestors.
Therefore, I will not have children unless I earn enough to afford their genetic modifications. To do otherwise would be irresponsible.
I really doubt this. Humanity is really good at surviving things.
My prediction - at a certain point, we gain the ability to port human brains to computers. The most wealthy gain this tech first, and effectively become immortal. Using their wealth (which is likely always accumulating) they are able to afford lots of redundency and good tech + energy to function at extremely high levels of performance - essentially making them immortal gods. I assume they will form alliances and rivalries, and stake out ground based on the now-general-intelligence AIs they have created.
Most people who choose transhumanism after this will need to utilize their afterlife continuing to work in order to pay for the ongoing cost of running their servers.
Meanwhile, humans still made of meat will have started conducting experiments on their genetics. Initially this will be about simply reducing or removing the chance of carrying a genetic disease. But soon they will start working on how to generally be better than others - improved cognitive abilities; sexier, stronger bodies; improved emotional regulation. Not long after, it will start being considered irresponsible to have children without the standard genetic modifications that the middle class can afford. Permanent class stratifications will be etched into dna. Even further along, the rich take genetic modification into fashion, creating physical markers of class stratification which will gradually make them look less human. As genetic class differences widen, there will be increasing class wars - in each one, the upper classes and those aligned with them will eliminate more and more of the lower classes. Slavery will also make a comeback, as those without genetic modifications (or with sufficiently lesser modifications) will be deemed too irresponsible to manage their own affairs and function in society. The descendents of the ultra-rich transhumanist gods, who will have the best and most fashionable genetic modifications, will be the first to achieve immortality in the flesh. But there will probably develop a sort of cultural expectation that they eventually give up their flesh and become transhumans like their anscestors.
Therefore, I will not have children unless I earn enough to afford their genetic modifications. To do otherwise would be irresponsible.