When population exploded a few centuries ago alongside the Industrial Revolution, it sparked a wildfire of nihilism and doomsaying in Europe. At the turn of the 19th century, English economist Thomas Malthus infamously warned that if humans kept breeding unabated, they would soon run out of food. Speaking up against reproduction (or “passion between the sexes”, as Malthus put it romantically) must have been as unpopular back then as it is today, because Malthus first published those thoughts anonymously. But as technology revolutionised productivity, Malthus’ apocalyptic prophesy did not come to pass. Fate is finally being tempted now. In the…