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00:00 Think back to when you last celebrated your birthday.
00:03 Hopefully you were made to feel pretty special with cake and presents and a party.
00:07 Maybe you marched through your hometown with a huge balloon and the birthday song played
00:11 on repeat.
00:12 What might come as a little surprise then is that you're actually not that special
00:16 at all.
00:17 By current figures, even on the exact day that you were born, you were only one of around
00:21 385,000 babies born in total on Earth during that 24-hour time period, which is about 260
00:29 a minute.
00:30 Which means that globally, approximately four babies are born every single second.
00:35 That's four, and four, and four, and you get the point.
00:40 And remember, that's only on the specific date and year that you were born.
00:44 The same thing happens every single year, before and after you arrived, which means
00:49 more and more and more people to share your birthday with.
00:52 Of course, really, it's not quite as simple as all that.
00:55 For instance, birth rates have risen and fallen over time.
00:58 We also know that certain periods of the year tend to witness more births than others.
01:02 But still, it's said that any one person probably shares their "special day" with
01:06 more than 20 million others at least, the only serious anomaly being if you were born
01:11 on February 29th during a leap year.
01:13 So, already, we've set the scene for the question at the top of today's video and
01:18 triggered the realization that, even on your birthday, you're still just one of millions
01:22 more.
01:23 Such is the size, scope, and longevity of the human race.
01:26 So, and to suddenly switch from a mood of celebration to one of creeping, ominous darkness
01:32 and dystopia, what would happen if actually none of the previously mentioned statistics
01:36 were relevant anymore, because birth itself disappeared?
01:41 This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary question; what if no one
01:45 else was born?
01:49 Do you need the big questions answered?
01:51 Are you constantly curious?
01:52 Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one?
01:55 And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!
01:59 In November 2022, the global population passed 8 billion people for the first time.
02:04 That number has more than tripled in the last 70 years, as in 1950, it was around 2.5 billion.
02:10 And while millions of people do sadly die every year as well, far more are born.
02:16 The most widely cited figures say that there are between 60 and 70 million deaths every
02:20 year versus 130 to 140 million births.
02:24 That's twice as many people are born than die.
02:27 In general, these numbers show the remarkable growth of our species into a wide-reaching
02:31 and dynamic population.
02:33 It hasn't always been this way, though.
02:35 Examining historical trends, the birth rate has fluctuated significantly over time.
02:40 In the pre-modern era, the Middle Ages, and up to at least the mid-19th century, factors
02:45 such as high infant mortality rates, limited medical knowledge, and largely agricultural
02:50 lifestyles all contributed, to some degree, to higher birth rates.
02:54 Countries needed more children to ensure survival and support in their daily lives.
02:58 The 20th century brought about a transformative shift, however.
03:02 With advancements in medicine, increased access to education, and improvements in living standards,
03:07 birth rates in many developed countries started to decline.
03:10 This phenomenon, known as the demographic transition, is characterized by a shift from
03:15 high birth and death rates to lower ones.
03:18 And even though the population as a whole has continually risen, we've seen birth rates
03:22 continue to fall in line with this pattern.
03:24 Long story short, people today have far fewer children on average, but far more of those
03:28 children survive into adulthood.
03:31 All of that said, today's topic is wholly hypothetical.
03:34 In the real world, we're not expecting to see an end-of-birth scenario, or anything
03:38 even close to that.
03:39 In fact, many demographers predict that after a period of decline, birth rate could well
03:44 increase - and potentially quickly - in the near-to-far future.
03:48 For a true world without birth, then, we have to imagine a place where, for some reason,
03:52 even the possibility of humans giving birth has disappeared.
03:56 Could anything really happen to cause that?
03:58 In a word, no.
03:59 Or, at least, it's extremely, extremely, extremely unlikely.
04:03 In a science fiction dystopia, we might see the spread of some kind of biological factor
04:08 - like a virus that specifically affects reproductive systems - with a 100% infection rate.
04:14 Or perhaps widespread infertility due to unknown environmental changes.
04:19 Or maybe some kind of technological disaster leading to an ultra-specific biological ruin.
04:24 All of those circumstances work in fiction, but are very difficult to envisage in real
04:28 life.
04:29 Nevertheless, if we imagine that the seemingly unthinkable has happened, and birth really
04:34 does just stop, then the immediate and long-term consequences are incomparably huge.
04:39 In the first days and weeks after the end of birth, there'd surely be panic and confusion
04:44 worldwide.
04:45 Until the impossible truth became an accepted reality, it would just be too difficult to
04:49 believe.
04:50 Next, in the first few months and years, we'd all begin to truly realize the problems that
04:55 we'd be facing.
04:56 All sorts of societal structure would face inevitable collapse, due to the total absence
05:01 of new generations to keep them running.
05:03 Emergency services, schools, healthcare, governments, food production, energy use, the economy…
05:09 none can last so long as humanity isn't regenerating itself.
05:13 Of course, the global population would fall, but not in any kind of natural order.
05:17 Instead, we'd lose millions of people every week, and those people would be leaving behind
05:22 an endlessly aging remainder.
05:24 Before long, there would be far too much that needs to be done for the dwindling few that
05:28 are left to do it.
05:30 Clearly, the survival of humanity in this scenario would be the ultimate race against
05:34 time.
05:35 The exact timeline until extinction would depend on factors such as life expectancy,
05:39 disease prevalence, and environmental conditions… although it's a certainty that the prospects
05:44 for all of those would get worse and worse, with fewer and fewer people alive during every
05:49 passing day.
05:50 For the absolute last generation to live, they'd find themselves in an extraordinary
05:54 predicament.
05:55 As the final torchbearers of humanity, their lives would be drastically different from
06:00 ours, saddled with the weight of an entire species' legacy on their shoulders.
06:04 The very last humans might choose to form tight-knit communities, driven by a shared
06:09 awareness of their unique situation.
06:11 Or they might unavoidably become split up and spread out.
06:15 Meanwhile, treatment of the last born would be another major point of interest.
06:19 Because if it were possible to determine who the very last birth was, then that individual
06:24 could quickly become a symbol of hope.
06:26 Or their fate could bend the opposite way, to where they're viewed as the ultimate
06:30 harbinger of doom.
06:31 In either case, this hypothetical person would be forced to carry the emotional burden of
06:36 being the final representative of a once-thriving species.
06:40 In the long term, the eventual absence of humans and human activity would have profound
06:45 consequences on the planet.
06:47 There are many predictions suggesting that, if humans were to disappear, we'd see Earth
06:52 enter into a sustained period of ecological restoration; that we'd see nature reclaiming
06:57 urban areas and wildlife flourishing in the absence of human interference.
07:01 However, while that may be true, we'd also see a prevalence of technological ruins; the
07:06 cities of yesteryear left like wounds, pockmarking the surface.
07:10 And also, although the negative impacts of humankind on the rest of the natural world
07:14 are well-documented, the relatively sudden removal of us from the system might not be
07:19 such a good thing, either, with the loss of a dominant species triggering potentially
07:23 cascading effects on many - or all - other species.
07:27 One way we might get out of our birthless predicament would be to head life off at the
07:31 other end as well, by preventing death.
07:33 Certainly, in the phase of extinction, the pursuit of immortality would intensify.
07:37 And as more and more humans die off, those that are left might become increasingly desperate
07:42 to just try something - anything - to preserve themselves for future years, in a civilization
07:48 that's effectively closing down.
07:49 It's hard to imagine that something as energy and labour-intensive as a cryonics lab, for
07:54 example, would remain up and running, so it's not like we'd all be openly freezing ourselves
07:59 in the hope of a resurrection… but perhaps many would place their faith in digital immortality.
08:04 In uploading a semblance of their own consciousness onto a hard drive or into the cloud, again
08:09 in the hope of one day being reborn, or re-uploaded.
08:12 At the very end of the story, the disappearance of humans doesn't guarantee that life in
08:17 some form would never re-emerge here.
08:19 The history of Earth has witnessed multiple mass extinctions, followed by the rise of
08:24 new species.
08:25 And here we're only really imagining one species - our own - going extinct.
08:29 Therefore, if conditions were suitable, evolution seemingly could give rise to another group
08:35 of comparably intelligent beings in the distant future… but ultimately, there is no way
08:40 to know whether that would or wouldn't happen.
08:42 For now, the hypothetical scenario of a world without any new births invites us to reflect
08:47 on the fragile nature of human existence in general.
08:51 While there is a deep interconnectedness between us and the wider ecosystems of Earth, it's
08:55 a very intricate balance that's required for our survival.
08:59 And yet, as we discussed at the beginning, even during your most special day - your birthday
09:04 - you're really only ever one of millions more doing the exact same thing.
09:09 Life is at once eternal and fleeting, deeply personal and entirely average.
09:15 But however you find yourself feeling about it at any one moment in time, it's a relief
09:20 that life does find a way.
09:22 Because that's what would happen if no one else was born.
09:27 What do you think?
09:28 Is there anything we missed?
09:29 Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
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