4 ms·

this comes to show that sex is just entertainment and it is being crowded out from all sides

Mikhail_Edoshin 4mo ago
Everything is entertainment in the modern world. On the other hand, as William James wrote, one of definite characteristics of a religious experience is seriousness. "All is not vanity."
- 17761989 4mo ago
  [dead]
staticshock 4mo ago
There's a subgenre of dystopian sci-fi where the premise is that reality in general is destined to be eclipsed by matrix-like hyper-realities, and that people will vastly prefer those and cede reality to whoever's left. I guess the way this could work itself out is that if you prefer a hyper-reality, your genes do not pass on, and someone else's do, and within some number of generations we bounce back in response to evolutionary pressure. I learned a fun fact in a recent interview of David Reich (by Dwarkesh): > Every mutation that can occur does occur. There are eight billion people in the world. There are maybe 30 new mutations every generation, so that’s 240 billion new point mutations every generation. There are only three billion DNA bases in the genome, so every mutation that can occur does occur about 100 times every generation. We’re not mutation-limited anymore. https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/david-reich-2 https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/david-reich-2
- fragmede 4mo ago
  However, medical care isn't evenly distributed, neither is education, and there's tons of cultural differences as well. The mutations happen, but if the next Einstein or Ramanujan dies in a war-torn ghetto, did the mutation really happen?
  - ileonichwiesz 4mo ago
    A point mutation is very unlikely to produce “the next Einstein”, it’ll just produce someone with one slightly different protein in their gut.
    - fragmede 4mo ago
      yeah but that's no fun. Verve-102 and PCKS9 is a fascinating story in that area, of what we know and what we can do, but we need more money funding medical research in order to maker progress.
- initramfs 4mo ago
  Interesting. It hadn't occurred to me that The Matrix would become more ubiquitous, but it seems there are plenty of mechanisms from avoiding that. People read novels 200 years ago, and i imagine that was a bit of blue pilling.
epihelix 4mo ago
In this modern world where highly effective birth control is cheap and straightforward, we really need to stop equating fertility rates with levels of sexual activity. You can have plenty of sex and not have a child; you can have very little sex and have a substantial number of children. It's fascinating to me how personal choice never seems to enter into these discussions, even in relatively highly educated, first-world democracies. I actively chose to not have kids -- it was not an accidental by-product of iphones or any other proposed environmental factor.
- XorNot 4mo ago
  Thank you I was about to post this. The most absolutely infuriating thing about fertility rate discussions is the conclusion everyone draws of "obviously people aren't having enough sex". I was sexually active for over 15 years before having exactly 1 child when I decided to. The limiting factor in the number of children I have has at no point been the frequency of intercourse itself.
- swat535 4mo ago
  Unless you have surgically implemented birth control (such as vasectomy), the pregnancy chance logically increases with higher rate of sexual activity with multiple partners. Mistakes happen. Birth control is not 100% effective.. condoms break, women forget to take the pill, etc. Of course it goes without saying you have a much higher chance of pregnancy if you're not using any form of birth control.

Everything is entertainment in the modern world. On the other hand, as William James wrote, one of definite characteristics of a religious experience is seriousness. "All is not vanity."

17761989 4mo ago
[dead]

staticshock 4mo ago

There's a subgenre of dystopian sci-fi where the premise is that reality in general is destined to be eclipsed by matrix-like hyper-realities, and that people will vastly prefer those and cede reality to whoever's left. I guess the way this could work itself out is that if you prefer a hyper-reality, your genes do not pass on, and someone else's do, and within some number of generations we bounce back in response to evolutionary pressure. I learned a fun fact in a recent interview of David Reich (by Dwarkesh): > Every mutation that can occur does occur. There are eight billion people in the world. There are maybe 30 new mutations every generation, so that’s 240 billion new point mutations every generation. There are only three billion DNA bases in the genome, so every mutation that can occur does occur about 100 times every generation. We’re not mutation-limited anymore. https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/david-reich-2 https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/david-reich-2

fragmede 4mo ago
However, medical care isn't evenly distributed, neither is education, and there's tons of cultural differences as well. The mutations happen, but if the next Einstein or Ramanujan dies in a war-torn ghetto, did the mutation really happen?
- ileonichwiesz 4mo ago
  A point mutation is very unlikely to produce “the next Einstein”, it’ll just produce someone with one slightly different protein in their gut.
  - fragmede 4mo ago
    yeah but that's no fun. Verve-102 and PCKS9 is a fascinating story in that area, of what we know and what we can do, but we need more money funding medical research in order to maker progress.
initramfs 4mo ago
Interesting. It hadn't occurred to me that The Matrix would become more ubiquitous, but it seems there are plenty of mechanisms from avoiding that. People read novels 200 years ago, and i imagine that was a bit of blue pilling.

epihelix 4mo ago

In this modern world where highly effective birth control is cheap and straightforward, we really need to stop equating fertility rates with levels of sexual activity. You can have plenty of sex and not have a child; you can have very little sex and have a substantial number of children. It's fascinating to me how personal choice never seems to enter into these discussions, even in relatively highly educated, first-world democracies. I actively chose to not have kids -- it was not an accidental by-product of iphones or any other proposed environmental factor.

XorNot 4mo ago
Thank you I was about to post this. The most absolutely infuriating thing about fertility rate discussions is the conclusion everyone draws of "obviously people aren't having enough sex". I was sexually active for over 15 years before having exactly 1 child when I decided to. The limiting factor in the number of children I have has at no point been the frequency of intercourse itself.
swat535 4mo ago
Unless you have surgically implemented birth control (such as vasectomy), the pregnancy chance logically increases with higher rate of sexual activity with multiple partners. Mistakes happen. Birth control is not 100% effective.. condoms break, women forget to take the pill, etc. Of course it goes without saying you have a much higher chance of pregnancy if you're not using any form of birth control.