I was at a conference earlier this year where one of the topics was the fear of a population implosion. Some people are concerned that with birth rates declining in many parts of the world we might suddenly find ourselves without enough humans. Elon Musk has on several occasions declared population collapse the biggest risk to humanity (ahead of the climate crisis). I have two issues with this line of thinking. First, global population is still growing and some of those expressing concern are veiling a deep racism where they believe that areas with higher birth rates are inferior. Second, a combination of ongoing technological progress together with getting past peak population would be a fantastic outcome.

Still there are people who would like to have children but are not in fact having them. While some of this is driven by concern about where the world is headed, a lot of it is a function of the economics of having children. It’s expensive to do so not just in dollar terms but also in time commitment. At the conference one person advanced the suggestion that the answer is we must bring back the extended family as a widely embraced structure. Grandparents, the argument goes, could help raise children and as an extra benefit this could help address the loneliness crisis for older people.

This idea of a return to the extended family neatly fits into a larger pattern of trying to solve our current problems by going back to an imagined better past. The current tradwife movement is another example of this. I say “imagined better past” because the narratives conveniently omit much of the actual reality of that past. My writing here on Continuations and in The World After Capital is aimed at a different idea: what can we learn from the past so that we can create a better future?

People living together has clear benefits. It allows for more efficient sharing of resources. And it provides company which is something humans thrive on. The question then becomes what forms can this take? Thankfully there is now a lot of new exploration happening. Friends of mine in Germany bought an abandoned village and have formed a new community there. The Supernuclear Substack documents a variety of new coliving groups, such as Radish in Oakland. Here is a post on how that has made it easier to have babies.

So much of our views of what constitutes a good way of living together is culturally determined. But it goes deeper than that because over time culture is reflected in the built environment which is quite difficult to change. Suburban single family homes are a great example of that, as are highrise buildings in the city without common spaces. The currently high vacancy rates in office buildings may provide an opportunity to build some of these out in ways that are conducive to experimenting with new forms of coliving.

If you are working an initiative to convert offices into dedicated space for coliving (or are simply aware of one), I would love to hear more about it.