Humanity spreads itself through genes and memes. For most people it's only the former, for some the latter, for a few it's both. Do you think Peter Thiel isn't shaping the future because he has no children?
Those who wouldn't make the trade are declaring their ineligibility to participate in humanity's future. Sad but ok, there will be def be enough of us left to run the place. (But if you don't get along well with Mormons, give up now).https://twitter.com/aChanticleer/status/1040323426513285120 …
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Since copying ideas is much cheaper than copying people; memes are much more of a winner-take-all market, hence vastly higher risk. A few people have huge impact through memes, but that doesn't make it a smart strategy a priori. Like playing the lottery.
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Species-wide penetration is low-odds, sure, but most memes propagate themselves locally as well. A cat-lady teacher took me in when I had to leave home. As an adult, I'm happy, healthy, wealthy, and it's her funeral I'll be attending, not my old man's. Is it her legacy or his?
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Her memes, his genes. A great demonstration of how parenting passes on both. Hence having kids is not choosing genes over memes, but choosing genes + local memes. Some meme categories (science) are mainly transmitted globally, but some (ethics, values) are primarily local.
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Most definitely! But you're admitting that she has indeed shaped the future, a thing you previously claimed impossible without biological offspring.
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Totally agreed - I traded nuance for accuracy. Parents get to pass on genes & (subset of parent-child transmitted) memes. Non-parents get to pass on (locally transmitted + globally transmitted) memes. This is almost always less, but in extraordinary cases it's much much more.
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Cross-generational IQ test.
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The ad is aimed at those who want to *delay* parenthood not forgo it.
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To delay parenthood is to probabilistically forgo it.
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There is window of opportunity. Teens might improve their chances of escaping poverty if they delay parenthood until 25. A 30 year old might delay and miss the boat.
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Why is it that parents act as if they consciously made the decision to have children based solely on altruistic motives?
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People often find joy and purpose in helping produce a better future. You can say that's not altruistic, because they enjoy it. But enjoying contribution to the common good is what powers most "altruism". That's a good thing.
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Not that it's not altruistic because they enjoy it. More of a criticism of the idea that people make that choice based on the hope for humanity's future. Maybe a few, but by in large it's a personal decision. The hope for the world, which everyone has, grows stronger afterward.
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Do Mormons even fight?
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They fight the most fundamental battle of all living creatures: to influence the future by surviving and reproducing. And they fight it damn well.
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Anyone who thinks lipstick and high heels have no part in a flourishing post kids marriage is a delusional Puritan who shouldn’t be getting married anyway.
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I think this is nitpicking. She should still have heels left over from previously. The pacifier is only for infants, not for when the kids are a bit older. So the message is just giving up luxuries for a year when kids are very young.
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I dunno I feel like the message is “kids ruin your life and make things boring, wear a condom.”
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I'm reading it as give up luxuries temporarily to take responsibility for your infant.
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Ok. Well obviously you do have to do that to have kids. And men should give up video games anyway, at least as a regular habit.
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