ev·o·lu·tion
n.
A gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form.

I have this theory about the evolution of humans as it is occurring right now. Yes, it is happening right now as I write this and you sleep in. Evolution is always moving forward, usually so slowly as to be impossible to see except in a retrospective of millenia. But you can see the cultural evolution of the human race from here.

The world is getting very crowded. There is no longer a reason for first-world citizens to proliferately reproduce. And you can already see the population growth rate dropping in developed economically secure countries. Add to this the fact that less and less children die at a young age as we progress economically and scientifically, and there's even less need for multiple offspring. (In the not so historic past, one could expect some of your children not to make it to adulthood to produce their own offspring and carry on your genetic material--therefore the biological need for more babies.) The growth rate does continue to rise in third-world, less-developed countries, but as they develop into more economically secure countries in the future, one could hypothesize that this might very well change.

According to the Population Reference Bureau:

Between 2000 and 2030, nearly 100 percent of the world's annual growth will occur in the less developed countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, whose population growth rates are much higher than those in more developed countries.

The more developed countries in Europe and North America, as well as Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, are growing by less than 1 percent annually. Population growth rates are negative in many European countries, including Russia (-0.6%), Estonia (-0.5%), Hungary (-0.4%), and Ukraine (-0.4%). If the growth rates in these countries continue to fall below zero, population size would slowly decline. As the chart "World population growth, 1750–2150" shows, population increase in more developed countries is already low and is expected to stabilize.

So, who cares? Well, I think it shows the cunning adaptability of the human race. We don't feel the biological need to proliferate anymore. More and more couples are deciding not to have children. More and more couples are same-sex couples who cannot have their own biologically combined children. Maybe relationships are opening up to new possibilites as the need to procreate lessens. Perhaps we are evolving out of the necessity of same-sex, progeny-producing relationships.

So the next question I have is this: How long will it take politics to evolve to support humankind's new adaptation?

Evolve, bitches.