"We've floated a few arrangements to let the colonies vote themselves loose, probably by a supermajority or at least a majority of each caste. Maybe with a few years' transition period after the vote so national defense and relations and so on can be normalized."

"Yes, something along those lines sounds right."

"Portals might be possible in principle," he says, "but not any time soon - fifteen years if everything fell into place and we had the funding for it and the physics happened to work out."

"That would change the landscape considerably. Can't plan on it, though."

"And fifteen years is a long time even if it were certain."

"So governed from home initially, with provisions to be ruled independently but hopefully to keep taking immigrants even if they go for that."

"If the demand does not seem terribly disparate an indefinite freedom of movement clause seems prudent."

"Yes, I like that. - maybe until they hit a certain level of crowding, rather than indefinite -"

"Crowding is very much relative to infrastructure."

"I don't want to put a place in the position of taking immigrants while it can't find enough space for its own people, though, even if from comfortably over here we think they should've been able to find the space."

"I suppose we won't be able to take the population controls off altogether, if we can't rely on colonies to take arbitrary excess."

"When there's one colony I don't think we can. When there are a hundred and we can confidently state that the rate of closing immigration looks like one every six years, or something like that, then I think we probably can."

Nod. "But even three per - or the equivalent credit scheme where they do that - will help."

"Three per with an average first child at age five is the same growth rate as a percentage of the population as four per with the average first child at eight, if we have to do restrictions at all I think we might let people choose three whenever they want or four starting when they're eight."

"The exact people who wind up wanting the larger number are the ones who find it most difficult to wait."

"I know. I'm not confident having the choice leaves them worse off, though."

"I think you will wind up with marital tension and a spike in the divorce rate, people pregnant at seven swearing they were raped even if they have to misrepresent their ex-boyfriend to do it, and a sudden jump in the average age of your population among anyone who thinks they can fox the records."

Nod. "We'll be on the lookout for that if we do a test run - and rates of people reporting at ten they wish they'd picked the other option, how well what people prefer when it's not springtime matches what they go for in the spring, that kind of thing."

"Once people have had a couple of springs they know more or less what theirs are like. Even if you are not tired at the time of the decision you would probably avoid a hotel room which did not have a bed."

"And yet there's a substantial aftermarket credits market places that do that, and it's not all five and six year olds buying."

"Yes, sometimes what people learn about themselves is that they have trouble planning ahead."

"Yep. Which is why that's an important thing to check for, when you're figuring out whether letting people have more flexibility serves them."

Avalor purses her lips slightly and does not pursue the topic.

(He has a feeling she doesn't usually get that vehement about other countries doing small-scale tests of social programs.)

"Calado and Voa might also differ that way - practically no one got a permission at five or six, we're used to waiting, we don't have social institutions and family businesses built around most people marrying and having a child at five, and young adult living arrangements in anticipation of not having them until you're in your teens are far more accessible and widespread."