Patri Friedman

This is unbearably cruel to a whole lot of people, including many who are blameless even under the premises behind the idea. But I think the underlying premise is awfully condescending, oblivious, and misguided, too. Don't do this.

Unbearably cruel is an accurate description of the rules of an evolutionary universe. So it will often apply to true statements. The underlying premise is "Survive". I think its utterly nuts that this is controversial. Fortunately, it's a problem that fixes itself.

One of the lovely things about being human is that we can use our self-awareness and intelligence to make decisions more sophisticated than base animal imperatives. Compassion, for example, is a factor that we can consider, and should. ("Survive" is not remotely at risk today.)

Intelligence lets us understand complex things like the effect of statistically selection for or against certain human attributes. Like game theory and evolution. Like economics and public goods and utility. Using all that brainpower to justify extinguishing yourself...