OMG, OMG, OMG! This is such a brilliant, fantastic piece in so many ways. Boy did you set off major flares in my head. I was drowning in memories so much flooded in, sooooo fast.

I saw that movie in the theater when it was out. Eight times. I had read the novel it's based on. Harry Harrison and his "Stainless Steel Rat" books are in my pantheon of sci-fi.

The suicide booths in Harrison's are positively benign compared to the depopulation lottery in "Nature's End". I think the possibility of both of these becoming reality is much higher with each passing year.

Collapse is complex. Everything depends on how fast it happens.

Think of it as the difference between hitting a wall at 50mph or 10mph. In the first case your car is totaled and you might be dead. In the second, you will probably be able to drive away.

In a fast collapse. Everyone dies so quickly, that suicide in any form is unnecessary. There won't be that many people left but the dieback process will be truly horrible.

Did you see the series "Revolution" a few years back? In a Carrington Event where all global power went down and stayed down. I would expect 75% of the population to die in the first 18 months.

That would be truly horrible to live through.

The other possibility I think is approaching unity is a super plague. There was a brilliant Frank Herbert book "The White Plague" which weighs heavier on my mind with each passing year.

The tech is so much better now and there is a real view that rapid depopulation is the only solution. The "final solution" if you get my not subtle at all reference.

It's becoming a certainty that someone will try it. Probably multiple someones.

Anyway, I loved this piece. OMG, so jealous, it's so good.