According to the most recent census data, the United States white population is declining while the Hispanic and Asian population is on the rise.
Interestingly, the data gathered during the pandemic showed no majority racial or ethnic group for people below 18, giving us a glimpse of what’s in the future for the United States.
Unsurprisingly, falling birth rates led to a lower percentage of children in the country.
Seeing the US population in numbers made me think about the global population—what if an alien species arrives and studies our planet?
Let’s look at English. First off, by the numbers, the combination of India and Pakistan have nearly as many English speakers as the United States. Nigeria has two-thirds as many. So, to an outside observer, American English isn’t even necessarily the de facto English.
More broadly, humans are the most populous animals on Earth, with ~7.6 billion. Cows are number two, with ~1.5 billion, and domestic sheep and pigs each have ~1 billion.
To an alien observer, it might not make sense why human needs are over-represented—in fact, solely represented.
What if they are advanced enough to take over our planet but enforce equal rights to life for ALL animals? It’s a world with forced vegetarianism.
One character could be part of a hyper-masculine culture that prides itself on eating meat. So their family runs a clandestine butcher and sends out meat, prohibition-style.
Another character has been vegan their whole life and tries spreading helpful strategies far and wide.
The pair’s paths cross when they discover a way to defeat the alien overlords, something strange like in the movie Evolution (they find out a compound in shampoo kills the aliens).
I’m not necessarily for or against veganism, but I do think about the relative populations of the different animals and how they all exist for humans (dogs and domestic goats are the following two animals on the list)
In a sequel/similar concept, what if aliens decide to base their preservation of life decree based on the number of individuals regardless of the biological kingdom? Viruses and bacteria are the overwhelming driving force, and humans are urged to greater and greater levels of breeding and subsistence as incubators for microscopic organisms.
OR ants. There are tons of ants.
