On depopulation

<p dir="ltr">This paper introduces the slow-developing crisis of depopulation, affecting most of the world’s states, within the other slow-moving crisis, climate change. In principle, depopulation is a measure that eases the severity of climate change, but it has to be managed, else civilisation collapse is possible. Two particular issues are addressed; first, the ‘grey fade’, where the retired population becomes subject to diminishing capabilities and vanishing minds and requires increasing care from a reducing population, and second how to create the conditions for fertile women to have more babies, to ease the rate of decline of the population, so that society can show the resilience to adapt in time to what is a significant change. Both of these issues are human-centric and society-wide and will require the close combination of systems engineering and human factors to produce adequate society-level solutions.</p><p dir="ltr">Practitioner relevance. In both disciplines, human factors and systems engineering, the goals of our work is aimed at improving the enterprise, because that’s where the money is. This paper is an invitation to practitioners to lift their aims to the level of society, where government lacks the skills and ways of thinking to produce good solutions. There is scope for big growth in both disciplines. Potential solutions are suggested.</p><p><br></p>