Climate change, global population growth, and humanoid robots

Abstract

According to the 2015 Paris Agreement, signatories were to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2050. However, it is more likely that global warming will rise above 1.5°C by 2050 and 2.0°C by 2100. The primary driver of climate change is population growth. 7.7 billion people live on the planet with projections of 11 billion by 2100. Accordingly, developed countries like the US, which disproportionately generate the CO2 causing climate change, need to reduce population; however, the U.S. government, in particular, is increasingly hostile to the availability of birth control and abortion. It is in this context that the technological world of humanoid robots may make a significant impact upon populations in the developed world. Scholars project the proliferation of humanoid robots as objects of sexual desire. As people increasingly use humanoid robots as sexual partners, particularly in developed countries where individuals can afford expensive sexbots, the birth rate of developed countries will surely fall from the current 1.7 in the US, 1.6 in Europe, and 1.4 in Japan. This article explores the problems with and the possibilities of humanoid sex robots as a prophylactic to human population growth and climate change.