Nature's Other Way

We're all adults here, right?  Or at least our versions of adult?  We're all enlightened and fully aligned with the live-and-let-live ethos, right?  Okay good.  Let's all take it easy.  This is just a thought experiment so no I haven’t covered every base.  Just understand I'm not attacking anyone here.

 I do this little disclaimer because with certain topics, people have become trained to get defensive about them.  They go into Advocacy Mode and everyone just wants to argue and I'm not here for that end of it.  I'm viewing this subject from a mechanical perspective, not a moral one.  Maybe not so fun for most, but since when have I ever been fun?

I think the world has pretty well neared critical mass in terms of population and I'm thinking that the human instinct to procreate might be beginning to shift. 

Since about forever, sex drive has kept our species on the planet.  It's an instinct.  If it were something that humans could procrastinate about, we would, which means it would never get done.  There would be so few of us.  If instinct were not driving the train, the train would never leave the station.

But it does seem procreation is on the decline and not just because heterosexual couples aren't getting it done.  We have an increasingly large number of people who have genders and sexualities that don't fit traditional definitions.  Here I am again saying that this doesn't upset me in any way.  It seems homosexuality is on the rise - probably at its peak.  Gender and sexuality roles are being redefined all over the place and we're pretty far away from the nuclear family model of the 1950's, and not just because we're more enlightened - it's also a result of sheer numbers.  We have the proverbial thousand monkeys sitting at a thousand typewriters right now inventing every possible combo, which is great, but current evolution says that only one combo can procreate.   

I'm going to stop here again to say I have zero judgement about any of the moral stuff involved here.  Admittedly what I’m getting at is a lot less romantic than the idea of sexuality and gender identity being some sort of immutable essence.  What I'm wondering is, could all this be a biological, evolutionary response to our environment?  I know it might seem insulting to think so but you need to accept the idea that the mind or soul is just something invented by the brain and the brain is controlled by physiology like anything else.  Almost a sacrilegious thought but not exactly unreasonable. 

Armed with that thought I wonder if there's some kind of shift happening inside our brains that dulls our need to procreate.  Like the birds instinctual need to fly south in the winter, maybe when we look around and see how many of us there are, there's a subconscious shift that happens in our little pea brains, too. Our whole existence on this planet is owed to the instinct to procreate.  If aliens were able to come here and rewire us all to just forget about that, then all they'd have to do is wait it out and the planet would be theirs.  THAT'S SUPER CLEAN!

Okay - maybe a little bit beside the point there but I do wonder if there's some sort of human mechanism that responds to overpopulation and if we might be experiencing it right this very moment.  People are much more willing to accept the idea that we could develop webbed feet or hands, or that lactose intolerance is an evolutionary sign that we should leave cows alone, but if evolution touches the mind or identity... [exploding head emoji]

All right don't worry about it.  These were just some ideas.  Sorry for the interruption.  Back to taking sides on the issue everyone!  Sorry I just called us all monkeys with pea brains.