Generational Dynamics Forum - New Site

The trial has potentially global ramifications. One in six people of reproductive age experiences infertility, according to the World Health Organization. The number is consistent across developed and developing countries and is growing as women delay childbirth and environmental and other factors come into play. The vast majority of this group — aside from a relatively small percentage in wealthy countries — lacks access to fertility care. Even in the United States, where a single cycle of IVF can cost up to $30,000 — and most patients require multiple cycles — fertility clinics are concentrated in wealthier coastal cities. Wide swaths of the country are what researchers call “fertility deserts.”

“Despite the magnitude of the issue,” the WHO concluded in a report in 2023, solutions for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infertility “remain underfunded and inaccessible.”

The Aura system, which automates 205 manual steps in IVF from egg freezing to creating an embryo, is made by a start-up called Conceivable Life Sciences. Though headquartered in New York, Conceivable is largely the brainchild of a pioneering Mexican fertility doctor, Alejandro Chávez-Badiola, one of the first physicians to explore how artificial intelligence could be applied to the treatment of infertile patients.

Higgenbotham wrote: Sun Dec 11, 2022 3:23 pm This industrial civilization goes to great lengths to assess and identify individuals who have intelligence according to the criteria that generally lead to career success and put those people in positions of decision-making (within limits of intelligence), but has no processes in place to assess and identify individuals who have wisdom or to place them in any position of decision-making. Also, in our everyday conversations both public and private, there are constant references to those who are “smart” but somewhere between zero and a very small number of references to people who are “wise”. Therefore, it’s not possible to point to a group of wise people who have been identified by some tried and true process and know what that group thinks about the Federal Reserve, or anything else. The problem if the wise were to somehow get control of decision making at this time is that the position industrial civilization currently finds itself in is not a good one for the wise to grapple with. People with wisdom are good at keeping a civilization on the correct path but not so good at knowing what to do with it once it has deviated from that path for a long time. An example of that might be the question of whether the world should have gone down the path of R&D and manufacturing of synthetic chemicals. The wise probably would have determined not go down that path, but in this industrial civilization they weren’t in any position of authority to determine whether that was going to be done; the intelligent (at the approximate level of the 97th Percentile, but not the highest level) were. Now that we have gone down that path, the wise probably can’t help us.

September 24, 2025

Nearly 8 In 10 Voters Say The United States Is In A Political Crisis, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds

In the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, 79 percent of voters say the United States is in a political crisis, while 18 percent say it is not, according to a Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pea-ack) University national poll of registered voters released today.

Democrats (93 - 6 percent), independents (84 - 14 percent), and Republicans (60 - 35 percent) say the United States is in a political crisis.

"The Kirk assassination lays bare raw, bipartisan concerns about where the country is headed," said Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy.

POLITICALLY MOTIVATED VIOLENCE

Seventy-one percent of voters think politically motivated violence in the United States today is a very serious problem, 22 percent think it is a somewhat serious problem, 3 percent think it is a not so serious problem, and 1 percent think it is not a problem at all.

This is a jump from Quinnipiac University's June 26 poll when 54 percent thought politically motivated violence in the United States today was a very serious problem, 37 percent thought it was a somewhat serious problem, 6 percent thought it was a not so serious problem, and 2 percent thought it was not a problem at all.

Nearly 6 in 10 voters (58 percent) think it will not be possible to lower the temperature on political rhetoric and speech in the United States, while 34 percent think it will be possible.

A majority of voters (54 percent) think political violence in the United States will worsen over the next few years, while 27 percent think it will remain about the same, and 14 percent think it will ease.

Three in 10 people now say that Americans may have to resort to violence to get the country back on track, according to a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.

To be sure, a strong majority disagree with that (70%), but the 30% who now say violence may be necessary is up 11 points since April 2024, an increase driven by Democrats. Eighteen months ago, just 12% of Democrats agreed; now, 28% do.

But, still, a slightly higher percentage of Republicans — 31% — also say Americans may have to resort to violence. That's also up 3 points since last year. (Independents have also increased from 18% to 25%.)

Higgenbotham wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2024 12:49 pm I've mentioned in these pages that somewhere around 1971, give or take a few years, and it would vary from sector to sector with probably the more complex sectors coming first, that the US entered the maintenance phase of a declining civilization. There was a slow recognition and response to that turning point.

Minimum wage would be $26 an hour if it had grown in line with productivity

Updated on: September 7, 2021