Such practices is why the Brave New World is a dystopia
Did we read the same book?
Totally not our society!
But yeah this invention is a good thing
Yes, and the engineered factory humans is part of the dystopian point it makes. The dehumanization begins at that, it's not just the soma.
Which is also why the normally born people (in the wildling "reservation"), the regular aging, the regular pregancy, are also in the book as a antithesis to the dystopian society (but one which they can not belong as outsiders, like we can't be "natives", only LARP it).
I want to. And the book's age has nothing to do with whether it's points are valid or not.
Literature doesn't have an expiration date. And some ideas about what it means to be human aren't meant to be transient - though their adoption might be.
But I was also trying to convey that "this piece of literature argues X, therefore X is true" can't possibly hold up for every given work of literature. You can find an author for any viewpoint! They can't all be true at once!
Fear of the unknown is strong in us, especially when it comes to our bodies. See also, anti-vaxxerism.
I think some of the concern is reasonable and some isn't.
And rightly so. It's used as a patch for many social issues (like declining fertility and careerism).
Outside rural Sahel or Afghanistan, the world has moved on to an industrial or post-industrial society, where it is no longer desirable to keep women illiterate and start having babies at 17, when the natural fertility is at its peak, then immediately employing small kids as goatherds.
IVF is a partial patch for increasing educational levels of the general population. I am fine with a more educated population.
Too general a statement to answer - if anything and everything can be considered a "patch".
The course of civilization solves some problems and creates others. Some of the issues it solves are huge wins. Other times, the problems can be way worse than what there was.
For example, if we accept, for argument's sake, that the AI doomers are right, and AI kills or enslaves us all, that would be an example of a civilization's patch being worse than the issue patched.
>IVF is a partial patch for increasing educational levels of the general population. I am fine with a more educated population.
If the alternative is decline and death, I'd chose life. Goat-herder sure beats office drones and depressed doom-scrollers, which is what we increasingly produce.
Do you speak from experience?
Goat-herding in a state of constant food-, water- and physical insecurity, with zero amenities or healthcare, might be enjoyable for some (though maybe less so at the age of five), but "sure beats" sounds like a hot take from the social media.
It is still possible to move to South Sudan or Niger and start a goatherding career there, but few office drones have walked the walk. Quite to the contrary, there is a significant outflow of economic migrants away from such conditions, into the richer parts of the world.
If you are not a birthing person, have you ever been with a birthing person for the duration of their pregnancy?
That's more "Brave New World" style shortcuts to hapiness and convenience...