Julian said, “And now it’s all raised in what amounts to oversized test tubes, in which the necessary nutrients are piped in to continue the life and growth of the various meats. But you still have to have agricultural products to nourish this living—but not really living—flesh.”
“Yes, but much less than when we raised the whole animal. In the factory vats, where the meat grows, there are no bones, no skin, no waste at all. We grow only the parts of the animal we wish to use. Sir, this is a grim subject to discuss while eating.”
Julian agreed. “All right. Here’s something else I wanted to ask you about. When you were kidding me about renting houses rather than owning them, you mentioned the fact that first we had a baby, and then since my—my girl and I were genetically ideal we were given permission to have a second child. That floors me. You mean you have to be genetically checked out before you can have children these days? We wouldn’t have stood for that in my time.”
“I worded that poorly,” she admitted. “There is no law involving such things, but there have been considerable advances in genetics in the past quarter of a century. As a consequence, from earliest youth we are taught how important it is not to have children by someone whose genes are such that the child might be affected adversely. So it is that practically any couple considering children will have themselves throughly checked out.”
“Even if a couple were told that a child of theirs would be a Mongolian idiot, they could go ahead if they wished?”
“Yes. You can see how extremely unlikely that would be, but there is no law against it. We’ve eliminated laws having to do with individual actions that don’t harm anyone else. If you want to read pornography you can do so until your eyes drop out. If you want to take dope until you’re so far around the bend that you have to be hospitalized, go ahead—just so long as you don’t harm someone else. If you’re a homosexual, have the time of your life—but make sure your partner is a consenting adult.”
“So that genetic thing is voluntary.”
“That’s right.”
Julian took another sip of his wine. “What’s happened to the population explosion? What’s the population now? What is it in India, for heaven’s sake?”
She looked at him in surprise. “You continually set me back with your lack of knowledge of your own period. Surely the population problem was already phasing itself out at the time you went into hibernation.”
“We considered it one of the most dangerous trends of our time.”
“The existence of a trend doesn’t mean it will continue, Jule. For instance, in the nineteenth century the horse population in the United States doubled, tripled, quadrupled at least every decade. But it slid to a halt shortly after the turn of the century, with the advent of the internal combustion engine. By the middle of the twentieth century, the horse was largely a rich man’s hobby.”
“That was horses. But in my day, human population was booming.”
She shook her head. “It was already falling off in the most advanced countries. Japan and Holland were two of the first to achieve zero population growth, and West Germany, in 1972, was the first modern country to lose population: thirty-thousand to be exact. Even then the United States was pushing the zero population growth point. I’m no Marxist, but I go along with his materialist conception of history. Most of our institutions have economic backgrounds.”
“What in the devil has that got to do with the amount of population? By the way, how much larger is it now than it was in 1970?”
“I haven’t seen recent statistics, but I assume it’s smaller. There were too many people in the world for its resources.”
He just stared at her.
She explained impatiently, “People of the past wanted large families to work on the farm, for child labor in factories, to help support the family. Especially in countries such as England; Marx’s chapters on child labor in nineteenth century England are absolutely chilling. But by the twentieth century, what with developments in both industry and agriculture so that it was no longer practical to employ children—a child can’t run a tractor, nor program a computer—families grew smaller. Particularly after women began to join the labor force. Women who worked were no longer in a position to raise children; well, not a whole brood of them, certainly. Houses and apartments were now rarely built with four or five bedrooms. And some landlords refused to take families with any children at all.
“Many women—as well as men—simply didn’t want children. They would interfere with their lives, their jobs, their entertainment. Fun was no longer a matter of quilting parties, church socials, and candy pulls. Women wanted to be out and doing, as their husbands had been out and doing for a long time.”
“But it’s an instinct to have children.”
“Yes, but not herds of them. In your day, a lot of people who had children didn’t want them, couldn’t afford them, couldn’t support them. When the new, more efficient birth control devices came along about 1960, the growth rate slowed considerably. Today, you can have children or not, as you wish. We have perfect birth control methods for both men and women. One shot makes you sterile indefinitely. If you change your mind, another shot makes you fertile again within twenty-four hours. We also have very competent sexual instruction in our schools. In the mid-twentieth century literally millions of young people went into marriage each year without the vaguest idea of just what a sexual relationship consisted of, let alone how to avoid conception. Largely, of course, these were the uneducated, under-educated, and especially those of conservative religious backgrounds.”
Julian was on the defensive, though he wasn’t sure why. He said, “Okay, that’s the story in the advanced nations. What happened in India and China?”
“Roughly the same thing, but it came about a little later. In countries such as India, the original reason for an exploding population also ended. In the days of small farms, the parents wanted large families to help, and to take care of them when they grew too old to work. But the small farmer was getting squeezed out, and his children were going to the cities and the manufacturing centers. As a result, the children became a drain on their parents rather than a help. You conceived and raised a child until it was in its teens and then it disappeared. Obviously, it was less than profitable.
“China? They were in the forefront of limiting population. Their dictatorial bureaucracy soon realized that the nation could not allow a population boom. As far back as half a century ago, young people were not encouraged to marry until a minimum of twenty-five years of age. Birth control methods were made readily available and they were one of the first countries to institute free abortions for all.”
They had finished their lunch and Edith put the dishes, utensils, napkins, etc. in the table center to sink away. When they went back into the living room, she sat down on the couch and Julian went over to the auto-bar. “Would you like a liqueur?” he asked.
“I’m not very keen on spirits, Jule.”
“I can recommend Kahlua, if they have it in your liquor supplies. It’s a Mexican drink based on coffee, and not too strong.”
“They probably have it. I’ll give it a try.”
He ordered verbally into the screen and shortly two cordial glasses of the dark brown, thick drink arrived. He brought them over and sat near to her.
She sipped, and pronounced it delicious.