A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 21

This is the 14th year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Why a story idea each day for the month? Because the best way to come up with a great story idea is to come up with a lot of ideas. And the best way to come up with a lot of ideas is to be proactive in sourcing story ideas.

Today’s story: Meet the elite couples who want to overpopulate the planet with their elite babies.

The Telegraph has an absolutely horrifying piece entitled, and how we all wish we were joking about this, “Meet the ‘elite’ couples breeding to save mankind.” Yes, it is a real thing. The Telegraph introduces us mostly to Simone and Malcolm Collins, “two 30-something American entrepreneurs turned philosophers” who are among the de facto leaders of the “pronatalism” movement that has taken wealthy Silicon Valley assholes by storm. Pronatalism is a “philosophy” that claims humanity is doomed if the worldwide human population falls off by any appreciable extent, and therefore everybody (not everybody) has to get to work pumping out babies (with certain genetic profiles) in order to save us from the literal collapse of human civilization.

You can immediately see, then, why this has become a favored conceit of Silicon Valley assholes in particular. It has all the hallmarks of a “philosophy” that faux-entrepreneurial trolls of a certain societal niche would glom onto. It’s premised on the collapse of humanity, and the notion that only Silicon Valley assholes can understand the crisis or save us from it. It requires no change in lifestyle; you can continue to be ostentatious in your consumption, you can still abuse workers or lease a private jet to wander off to this or that vacation hotspot.

No, the only requirement is to have as much sex as possible.

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Its core tenet is deceptively simple: our future depends on having enough children, and yet life in developed countries has become hostile to this basic biological imperative. Linked to the subcultures of rationalism and ‘effective altruism’ (EA), and bolstered by declining birth rates, it has been gaining currency in Silicon Valley and the wider tech industry — especially its more conservative corners.

If this is an actual thing — and apparently it is — then it is crying out to be satirized in film. Like “Adam McKay, we have your next project.” Because perhaps the only way to crush this movement — again, if it’s actually real — is to humiliate its adherents.

How to do that?

We’ve got a subculture: Pronatalism. Location: Silicon Valley. Objects of scorn: Super-rich, super-entitled, super-deluded bozos.

Maybe a multilinear approach like Magnolia, Babel, or Traffic:

• A Young Couple who recently struck it rich with a hi-tech startup company. New to the whole Silicon Valley ethos, they serve as our entry point into this subcultural movement.
• Pronatalist cult led by a charismatic “thought leader” who has wormed their way into Silicon Valley’s 1% of the 1%.
• A gay couple who have hired a young woman (not a Silicon Valley type) to be their surrogate mother-for-hire. The couple could be so concerned about propagating an uber-elite progeny, they make use of an exclusive cryobank home to “genius sperm,” donated by certified Mensa members.
• An absurdly wealthy tech bro who uses a dating service to procure an equally as rich tech sis. No romance, just sex and procreation.
• This being Silicon Valley, there is probably one or more tech developers pitching venture capitalists programs which, for example, can scan a crowded bar and determine which males have the most vigorous sperm and which females are at peak fertility.

There you go, my 21st story idea of the month. And it’s yours. Free! What would YOU do with it?

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20

Each day in April, I invite you to join me in comments to do some brainstorming. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when we play around with it. These are valuable skills for a writer to develop.

See you in RESPONSES to hear YOUR take on this story idea. And come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.