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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   11869 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026

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If you want more women to have more children, the best way is to lower socially expected levels of parental investment, especially in terms of time, and build institutions that essentially let you drop off your child whenever you want and pick them up whenever you want. Free, 24/7 daycare for everyone under 16.

Which only works when you get other women to not have their own kids but instead work in childcare taking care of yours. And if you never bother raising your own child at all (24/7 daycare) then what is the point of having a child? Might as well go full bore "surrogate mothers, raised by state carers" in that case.

Solaria from "The Naked Sun" when? Where "children" is a dirty word and asking does anyone have children is the most embarrassing and disgusting thing you can do:

Baley said, ‘You don’t like this, do you, ma’am?’

Klorissa shrugged her shoulders. ‘Why should I like it? I’m not an animal. But I can stand it. You get pretty hardened, when you deal with – with’ – she paused, and then her chin went up as though she had made up her mind to say what she had to say without mincing matters – ‘with children.’

She pronounced the word with careful precision.

‘You sound as though you don’t like the job you have.’

‘It’s an important job. It must be done. Still, I don’t like it.’ ‘

...Baley said, ‘You’ve called this place a farm and you’ve mentioned children. Do you bring up children here?’

‘From the age of a month. Every fœtus on Solaria comes here.’

‘Fœtus?’

‘Yes.’ She frowned. ‘We get them a month after conception. Does this embarrass you?’

[The foetuses are nurtured in tanks, artificial wombs, which are tended to by robots]

...She said, ‘I’ll show you the infants’ nurseries and the youngsters’ dormitories. They’re much more a problem than the fœtuses are. With them, we can rely on robot labour only to a limited extent.’

‘Why is that?’

‘You would know, Baley, if you ever tried to teach a robot the importance of discipline. First Law makes them almost impervious to that fact. And don’t think youngsters don’t learn that about as soon as they can talk. I’ve seen a three-year-old holding a dozen robots motionless by yelling, “You’ll hurt me. I’m hurt.” It takes an extremely advanced robot to understand that a child might be deliberately lying.’

... ‘How about you? Do you get out among the children?’

‘I’m afraid I have to sometimes. I’m not like the boss. Maybe some day I’ll be able to handle the long-distance stuff, but right now if I tried, I’d just ruin robots. There’s an art in handling robots really well, you know. When I think of it, though. Getting out among the children. Little animals!’

...‘Because I’m exceptional,’ she said with an unembarrassed, unblunted pride. ‘Dr Delmarre spent a long time searching for an assistant. He needed someone exceptional. Brains, ingenuity, industry, stability. Most of all, stability. Someone who could learn to mingle with children and not break down.’

...There were hundreds of cribs, with pink babies squalling, or sleeping, or feeding. Then there were playrooms for the crawlers.

‘They’re not too bad even at this age,’ said Klorissa grudgingly, ‘though they take up a tremendous sum of robots. It’s practically a robot per baby till walking age.’

‘Why is that?’

‘They sicken if they don’t get individual attention.’

Baley nodded. ‘Yes. I suppose the requirement for affection is something that can’t be done away with.’

Klorissa frowned and said brusquely, ‘Babies require attention.’

Baley said, ‘I am a little surprised that robots can fulfil the need for affection.’

She whirled towards him, the distance between them not sufficing to hide her displeasure. ‘See here, Baley, if you’re trying to shock me by using unpleasant terms, you won’t succeed. Skies above, don’t be childish.’

'Shock you?’

‘I can use the word too. Affection! Do you want a short word, a good four-letter word? I can say that, too. Love! Love! Now if it’s out of your system, behave yourself.’

Baley did not trouble to dispute the matter of obscenity. He said, ‘Can robots really give the necessary attention, then?’

‘Obviously, or this farm would not be the success it is. They fool with the child. They nuzzle it and snuggle it. The child doesn’t care that it’s only a robot. But then, things grow more difficult between three and ten.’

‘Oh?’

‘During that interval, the children insist on playing with one another. Quite indiscriminately.’

‘I take it you let them.’

‘We have to, but we never forget our obligations to teach them the requirements of adulthood. Each has a separate room that can be closed off. Even from the first, they must sleep alone. We insist on that. And then we have an isolation time every day and that increases with the years. By the time a child reaches ten, he is able to restrict himself to viewing for a week at a time. Of course, the viewing arrangements are elaborate. They can view outdoors, under mobile conditions, and keep it up all day.’

It’s the ‘option’ of 24/7, I don’t think most people who wouldn’t today put their kid up for adoption would take it. But yes, even things like travelling as a couple while leaving your young kids at home with extended family or friends (which were normal in my grandparents’ day) are now looked down upon.

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