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The game of evolution isn't to pass on your genes one generation, its to have your genes persist indefinitely. If his son chooses not to have kids then it count

The game of evolution isn't to pass on your genes one generation, its to have your genes persist indefinitely. If his son chooses not to have kids then it counts as an evolutionary "failure" of the parent. It's why we choose attractive partners who will help us have evolutionarily fit children.

andyjohnson0 6y ago
> The game of evolution isn't to pass on your genes one generation, its to have your genes persist indefinitely. I think that's a maladaptive way to think about this. Attaching value and emotion to the long term fate of your particular genes is odd, given that they are almost completely identical to everyone else's. Whats the point in feeling sadness about this? And evolution isn't a game. It doesn't have a point, or an outcome. It's just what happens when you have replicators in a free energy medium. Genes don't win or lose, they just make copies of themselves. It's nothing to do with _us_. Its just biochemistry.
- hackinthebochs 6y ago
  >I think that's a maladaptive way to think about this. It's by definition very pro-adaptive. Many if not most of our emotions and behavior is merely in service to passing on our genes (at some higher-order analysis), which you seem to claim is pointless. If being concerned about your lineage is pointless, so is everything else you presumably have no objection to, e.g. feeling sadness from being rejected by a romantic interest. >And evolution isn't a game. I'm sure you've heard of a metaphor before.
- antepodius 6y ago
  >they're almost identical to everyone else's Do you really believe this argument? It seems like a strange one to make. Our genes are almost entirely identical, so why worry about diversity, then? Besides, people like you will, all else being equal, surely get outbred by people who do care about their progeny. So why worry? The tendency to hold your point of view will wipe itself out...
  - jagrsw 6y ago
    > people like you will, all else being equal, surely get outbred by people who do care about their progeny. So why worry? The tendency to hold your point of view will wipe itself out... That could be true (though, atheism is on the rise, despite religious people having more children than non-believers on avg). But it's also orthogonal to the question at hand. Existence or non-existence of proponents of a given POV at a given point it time doesn't say much about the validity of the POV itself.
    - antepodius 6y ago
      The POV's perfectly valid, because it's a set of values, which can't really be invalid per se. But if I had the chance to pick my own values, I wouldn't want to have ones that were antimemetic.
  - andyjohnson0 6y ago
    > so why worry about diversity, then Of course I'm concerned about that. Lack of diversity and the discrimination that goes with it causes real harm to real people. > Besides, people like you will, all else being equal, surely get outbred by people who do care about their progeny. So why worry? The tendency to hold your point of view will wipe itself out... So. Why should I care about that? If these people want to hold that view then that's up to them. What am I supposed to do: try to compete with them? Whats the issue here?

andyjohnson0 6y ago

> The game of evolution isn't to pass on your genes one generation, its to have your genes persist indefinitely. I think that's a maladaptive way to think about this. Attaching value and emotion to the long term fate of your particular genes is odd, given that they are almost completely identical to everyone else's. Whats the point in feeling sadness about this? And evolution isn't a game. It doesn't have a point, or an outcome. It's just what happens when you have replicators in a free energy medium. Genes don't win or lose, they just make copies of themselves. It's nothing to do with _us_. Its just biochemistry.

hackinthebochs 6y ago
>I think that's a maladaptive way to think about this. It's by definition very pro-adaptive. Many if not most of our emotions and behavior is merely in service to passing on our genes (at some higher-order analysis), which you seem to claim is pointless. If being concerned about your lineage is pointless, so is everything else you presumably have no objection to, e.g. feeling sadness from being rejected by a romantic interest. >And evolution isn't a game. I'm sure you've heard of a metaphor before.
antepodius 6y ago
>they're almost identical to everyone else's Do you really believe this argument? It seems like a strange one to make. Our genes are almost entirely identical, so why worry about diversity, then? Besides, people like you will, all else being equal, surely get outbred by people who do care about their progeny. So why worry? The tendency to hold your point of view will wipe itself out...
- jagrsw 6y ago
  > people like you will, all else being equal, surely get outbred by people who do care about their progeny. So why worry? The tendency to hold your point of view will wipe itself out... That could be true (though, atheism is on the rise, despite religious people having more children than non-believers on avg). But it's also orthogonal to the question at hand. Existence or non-existence of proponents of a given POV at a given point it time doesn't say much about the validity of the POV itself.
  - antepodius 6y ago
    The POV's perfectly valid, because it's a set of values, which can't really be invalid per se. But if I had the chance to pick my own values, I wouldn't want to have ones that were antimemetic.
- andyjohnson0 6y ago
  > so why worry about diversity, then Of course I'm concerned about that. Lack of diversity and the discrimination that goes with it causes real harm to real people. > Besides, people like you will, all else being equal, surely get outbred by people who do care about their progeny. So why worry? The tendency to hold your point of view will wipe itself out... So. Why should I care about that? If these people want to hold that view then that's up to them. What am I supposed to do: try to compete with them? Whats the issue here?