[JumpCrisscross]

> We could reduce our per-capita consumption, our lifespan, or our number

What is your evidence for shorter lives promoting long-term thinking? Like, look at a map of life expectancy in America [1]. Is Mississippi the bastion of ecological awareness you’re looking for?

Number and per-capita impact are the important variables. Wealth reduces the former and exponentially increases the latter. Longevity reduces the former and linearly increases the latter. (Poverty and reduction in lifespan exponentially increase the former while linearly reducing the latter; you don’t worry about efficiency when you have a short, brutish life.)

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_terr...

[resonator]

> What is your evidence for shorter lives promoting long-term thinking?

I'm looking at it in the other direction; that long-term thinking might result in shorter lives.

[JumpCrisscross]

> looking at it in the other direction; that long-term thinking might result in shorter lives

Based on what? Increasing lifespan reduces fertility [1]. This is empirically and theoretically grounded. Older populations shrink [2]. Your proposal, shortening lives, is one for boosting populations and consumption.

All that said, this debate is academic. If longevity treatment is possible, we will develop it, and the population can sort itself into those who live longer and those who don’t.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3220400/

[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s42949-021-00023-z