2 ms·
> Of two futures, which would you prefer? > 1. Where your descendants/relatives are alive but have little in common with your values (eg compare bronze age to n
by danans 9y ago
> Of two futures, which would you prefer?
> 1. Where your descendants/relatives are alive but have little in common with your values (eg compare bronze age to now)
> 2. You have no genetic descendants/relatives but whatever exists (robots, aliens, planet of the apes) shares your value system.
That's a false choice, based on these flawed assumptions:
- That genetic descent somehow diminishes the transmission of culture (or "memes" as you call it).
- That we don't have many bronze age values today. We do have them, evidenced by the fact that many people follow values of religions established in the bronze age.
- That the inevitable result of what you call a "meme-centric" direction of progress is genetic extinction for humans.
- haihaibye 9y agoGood points. >> many bronze age values today Most people have adopted the bronze age values of tribes other than their ancestors. There are 4B Muslims and Christians, but only 15M Jews, so Abraham has over 250x as many carriers of his ideas as carriers of his genes.
- danans 9y ago> There are 4B Muslims and Christians, but only 15M Jews, so Abraham has over 250x as many carriers of his ideas as carriers of his genes. Do we know that Abraham was a specific person whose genes we can trace rather than a mythological character? Even if you assume he was a real person, how can we be certain that the common ideas in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism originated with him? There's quite a bit of evidence that it was cobbled together over time from many sources (Israel, Egypt, Sumeria, Mesopotamia, etc.)