Scientist unveils creepy human farms concept with birthing pods that can grow up to 30,000 babies a year
It looks a bit like something out of a dystopian sci-fi
It's the sort of thing you'd probably expect to see in a dystopian slice of science fiction like The Matrix or Brave New World, but a scientist has pitched the concept of human farms full of birthing pods.
The basic concept is that rather than growing a baby the usual way in the mother's womb over the course of about nine months, the child would instead grow in one of the 'artificial wombs'.
This is EctoLife, a concept thought up by scientist Hashem Al-Ghaili, who created a video advertising the idea of birthing pods growing thousands of humans outside the womb to spark off a conversation.
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The video declared 'premature births and c-sections will be a thing of the past', and proclaimed that the technology would help countries suffering from 'severe population decline'.
EctoLife claims just one of their lab buildings can grow up to 30,000 babies each year, and the child inside will be monitored by all sorts of sensors which will be reported back to the parents.
They will also allow the parents-to-be access to an app which enables them to watch a timelapse of their baby growing, along with playing them music through speakers installed in the pod.
If this is meant to be the future it seems as though plenty of people won't be very happy, as there has been a backlash against the 'creepy' concept.
People criticised EctoLife, saying that the 'ethics and morality of this future is at the very least concerning' and reckoning it was a sign that 'the world has truly gone insane'.
Plenty of others drew the link between EctoLife and a whole range of dystopian sci-fi works which had depicted but definitely not endorsed similar concepts, calling the whole thing 'freaking scary as hell'.
That classic Jurassic Park quote about scientists being 'so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should' also made an appearance.
There wasn't much in the way of praise for the idea, though a handful of people suggested the project's aims of helping nations with low birthrates and families struggling to conceive could be a benefit.
Al-Ghaili also suggested it could help save lives around the world, arguing that 300,000 women die in childbirth each year and such a risk would be eliminated if they grew their babies in an EctoLife pod instead of in the womb.
Still, most were very sceptical of the whole concept, arguing that EctoLife was 'playing god' and did nothing to tackle the underlying reasons behind why a country might have low rates of birth.
Fortunately for those who aren't getting a good feeling from this, it's all just a concept at this stage and no actual lab which could grow thousands of babies at a time has been built - at least not yet.
Topics: Technology, Science, Weird
Joe Harker