Something I sometimes think about is the idea that humanity benefits from great innovators but said innovators seem to only appear randomly, not created by circumstances but enabled by them. This is much of why humanity benefits from there being more of us. Given that the birth rate of visionaries and innovators seems small, and not dependent on much else, creating more people seems to be the only real way to create more of these paragons.

The downside of there being more of us, aside from the obvious concerns of housing, food, etc, is the question of what all of the rest of us do while waiting for a next great innovator to enhance our lives. Historically, these concerns were well-aligned since all or most of what could be accomplished was limited by how many people there were. This meant that all the rest of us could do things like grow food, care for the young/old/sick, refine metals, teach, build infrastructure, etc. Now, however, automation and better tooling has meant that we don't need as many people to do all of those things.

So, what do us mere mortals do to pass the time?

After all, "idle hands," and all that,
...Nights