Re: Things presented in-story as Good Ideas that seem like really Bad Ideas

In article <kigvdjlg4st5e8fbfc0j7imfevvsdhvru5@4ax.com>,
Mad Hamish  <newsunspammelaws@iinet.unspamme.net.au> wrote:

On Mon, 9 Sep 2024 14:42:10 -0000 (UTC), jdnicoll@panix.com (James
Nicoll) wrote:
>

In article <lk79hhFp0bkU1@mid.individual.net>,
Ted Nolan <tednolan> <tednolan> wrote:

Lucky Starr's "Council Of Science", the Venus Belt, the Federation's
"Prime Directive".  Things like that.
>
Examples?
>
(How about we exempt Super-Powered Vigilantes)

>
The protagonists of Ben Bova's The Return solves women's insatiable
desire to have infinite children by secretly using alien super-
science to install fertility limiters on all women. Each woman can
have two kids and then they are sterile.
>
Some issues:
>
It's an egregious violation of personal autonomy.
>
Women do not in fact want infinite babies.
>
Some women won't have babies at all and some children will die
before reproducing. Therefore, the population will decline until
humans go extinct.
 
The last will be a real issue for the interstellar colonies that
head out at the end of the book, none of whom know their population
can only decline.

>
I think you reviewed something where each couple was limited to 1 kid
and the population seemed stable?

If that's addressed to me, yes:

   Eye of the Colossus: A Steampunk Space Opera Adventure
   (A Holly Drake Job Book 1)
   by Nicole Grotepas
   https://amzn.to/2HP8TLo
  
   Hands of the Colossus: A Steampunk Space Opera Adventure
   (A Holly Drake Job Book 2)
   by Nicole Grotepas
   https://amzn.to/2WzseDk
  
   Heart of the Colossus: A Steampunk Space Opera Adventure
   (A Holly Drake Job Book 3)
   by Nicole Grotepas
   https://amzn.to/2FLBuPq
  
   When we meet Holly Drake, she is in women's prison after having
   killed her abusive husband in self defense.  It was a clear cut
   case, but due to her husband having been a cop, and corruption in
   the police department, Holly went to jail.
  
   ...
   ...
   ...
  
   I did get a bit of a chuckle out of Grotepas's innumeracy at one point:
  
   "I thought it was for Odeon."  Holly glanced at her Druiviin
   friend. He seemed to be talking about the club still. From
   what Holly understood, Druiviin couples only had one child
   -- instilling into their single offspring all of the things
   their line cared for. It was said that their race on Yaso
   had reached a balanced ecological state: resources weren't
   over-consumed and by only having one child, they prevented
   a disastrous imbalance. But when a portion of their population
   left for the 6-moon region, the ones left behind began to
   have two children, to replace those who'd left. The immigrants
   to the 6-moons only had one child, typically.
  
   I'm not sure what she was thinking there!
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