I actually think modern urbanites have a lower effective social population density than the ancestral environment. Most hunter-gatherers have very little privacy, with entire entended families huddled in the same single-room dwellings. This level of density is very rarely present in developed cities (other than pubic transit). Most people in, say, Tokyo have their own room and thus few far less crowded than the average hunter gatherer, if you polled them throughout their day. Lowering the number of people encountered per day doesn’t seem to greatly increase fertility, otherwise COVID would have resulting in a big fertility bump. Maybe the problem is the opposite—modern technology allow us to have fewer undesired social encounters, which is a high-priority desire for most people, but those same undesired encounters were the main force behind the formation of romantic relationships.
It is possible that the easiest way to increase the fertility rate is a legal mandate for dinner with co-workers.
I actually think modern urbanites have a lower effective social population density than the ancestral environment. Most hunter-gatherers have very little privacy, with entire entended families huddled in the same single-room dwellings. This level of density is very rarely present in developed cities (other than pubic transit). Most people in, say, Tokyo have their own room and thus few far less crowded than the average hunter gatherer, if you polled them throughout their day. Lowering the number of people encountered per day doesn’t seem to greatly increase fertility, otherwise COVID would have resulting in a big fertility bump. Maybe the problem is the opposite—modern technology allow us to have fewer undesired social encounters, which is a high-priority desire for most people, but those same undesired encounters were the main force behind the formation of romantic relationships.
It is possible that the easiest way to increase the fertility rate is a legal mandate for dinner with co-workers.