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"There's a tendency to think that maybe if we can just throw enough hardware at the AI problem, then evolution can take care of the rest. Certainly that's how God went about making us."
- Rudy Rucker

Malthusian Belt  
  Readily available oral contraceptives.  

As far as I know, the first reference to this idea in science fiction (or anywhere).

In the end," said Mustapha Mond, "the Controllers realized that force was no good. The slower but infinitely surer methods of ectogenesis, neo-Pavlovian conditioning and hypnopædia …"

And round her waist she wore a silver-mounted green morocco-surrogate cartridge belt, bulging (for Lenina was not a freemartin) with the regulation supply of contraceptives.

"The discoveries of Pfitzner and Kawaguchi were at last made use of. An intensive propaganda against viviparous reproduction …"

"Perfect!" cried Fanny enthusiastically. She could never resist Lenina's charm for long. "And what a perfectly sweet Malthusian belt!"

Technovelgy from Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley.
Published by Unknown in 1932
Additional resources -

"Birth control is well documented in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt and this includes the description of contraceptive pessaries with ingredients that included acacia gum, a natural spermicidal that is currently utilised in contraceptive jellies.

"... earliest mention of the equivalent of an oral contraceptive pill appears to have been in Brave New World (1932) where procreation and sex are completely divorced."

For more information, see The pill in the future - pharmacological contraception in science fiction.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Brave New World
  More Ideas and Technology by Aldous Huxley
  Tech news articles related to Brave New World
  Tech news articles related to works by Aldous Huxley

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