So in case you'd missed it, we're all having less kids. As someone who prefers to play with cats and robots (which are less fragile and easier to lock downstairs when you're done), I'm personally quite keen on this idea, but I also have to admit it's real weird: something has happened globally in the last fifty or so years that has made fertility drop just as much in London as China, Mexico and Sri Lanka, and not many effects apply universally like that.

More importantly though, it might just break society: we've always relied on the new generation to care for the ones before in old age, and economically speaking, we've relied on the dynamism of future generations to subsidise the pensions of the current ones. So the future is probably a lot more older people, and fewer nuclear families (and potentially less money for everyone).

What does that look like? I'm not sure. Plenty of science fiction has contemplated it (I've recently enjoyed Too Like the LightningThis is not really my area of expertise, but it's something I've been thinking about. If others have been thinking about it too, might be nice to chat it over!) but it doesn't feel like liberal, pluralist voices really have a direction yet, and in the meantime, nationalist, nativist voices are shouting ever louder.

We're all part of an excitement experiment thinking about how governance and society could work. So what does an optimistic vision of the future look like for us, and how do we make the case for it?

This is not really my area of expertise, but it's something I've been thinking about. If others have been thinking about it too, might be nice to chat it over!