I’m motivated to build a better future, I believe that more happy lives are better.
Our lives are significantly influenced by our parents (nature and nurture) and I think raising good children in an environment where there’s an emphasis on caring about others is a good thing for the world.
It’s hard for an anti-natal social movement to last the test of time.
Nuka zaria: longtermist parenting?
I’m not totally kidding (ok, no more puns). Maybe reproduction could be seen as a credible commitment with the future—at least for rational people that actually ponder on having children.
(That’s something that weighs against me having children: do I want the people I care about most to live in the future? hmmm… maybe I’ll think again in a few years)
I wonder if there’s going to be a similar question on adoption
It reminds me (I’ll have to share it) this weird sonnet (On fate & future) I drafted (sorry for any lousy rhyme or offense I may have caused to this beautiful language, but I’m not a native speaker) for some friends working with Generation Pledge:
Unhealing stains, sons to be slain / As it’s written: jihad and submission / We let Samsara ourselves drain / While Lord Shiva stated a mission.
Mystics, and yet, we don’t believe / For no told miracles anticipate / What brought us luck, skill and fate / The true great wonder we might live:
In a century – in History, just a moment – / The length of happiness has grown six-fold / And more than doubled the expected life /
Now, let it be your faith and my omen / As their fears and promises grow old / No more be bound to ancestors’ strife.
It’s hard for an anti-natal social movement to last the test of time.
I’d like to hear more discussion about this. If EA as a value system should last a very long time, is it sustainable to convert enough other people’s children to make up for the fact that we aren’t (presumably) having as many?
An example motivating that question follows. It builds on / rephrases one of David’s replies.
Assuming there was only EAs and ineffective egoists (and the value systems are incompatible), and 1. each group was equally good at converting people from the other. 2. EAs had a relatively lower birthrate --> Then the set of values belonging to humans in the LR would be dictated by ineffective egoism.
This toy model illustrates that for EAs to have their values represented in the future of this admittedly weird world they have to either A. have as many kids as the ineffective egoists, B. get better at converting ineffective egoists or C. A combination of the two that comes out to stability or growth of the population holding EA values.
Because they are the future, literally.
I’m motivated to build a better future, I believe that more happy lives are better.
Our lives are significantly influenced by our parents (nature and nurture) and I think raising good children in an environment where there’s an emphasis on caring about others is a good thing for the world.
It’s hard for an anti-natal social movement to last the test of time.
Nuka zaria: longtermist parenting? I’m not totally kidding (ok, no more puns). Maybe reproduction could be seen as a credible commitment with the future—at least for rational people that actually ponder on having children. (That’s something that weighs against me having children: do I want the people I care about most to live in the future? hmmm… maybe I’ll think again in a few years) I wonder if there’s going to be a similar question on adoption
“Reproduction is a credible commitment to the future” is a potent meme.
It reminds me (I’ll have to share it) this weird sonnet (On fate & future) I drafted (sorry for any lousy rhyme or offense I may have caused to this beautiful language, but I’m not a native speaker) for some friends working with Generation Pledge:
Unhealing stains, sons to be slain / As it’s written: jihad and submission / We let Samsara ourselves drain / While Lord Shiva stated a mission.
Mystics, and yet, we don’t believe / For no told miracles anticipate / What brought us luck, skill and fate / The true great wonder we might live:
In a century – in History, just a moment – / The length of happiness has grown six-fold / And more than doubled the expected life /
Now, let it be your faith and my omen / As their fears and promises grow old / No more be bound to ancestors’ strife.
I’d like to hear more discussion about this. If EA as a value system should last a very long time, is it sustainable to convert enough other people’s children to make up for the fact that we aren’t (presumably) having as many?
An example motivating that question follows. It builds on / rephrases one of David’s replies.
Assuming there was only EAs and ineffective egoists (and the value systems are incompatible), and 1. each group was equally good at converting people from the other. 2. EAs had a relatively lower birthrate --> Then the set of values belonging to humans in the LR would be dictated by ineffective egoism.
This toy model illustrates that for EAs to have their values represented in the future of this admittedly weird world they have to either A. have as many kids as the ineffective egoists, B. get better at converting ineffective egoists or C. A combination of the two that comes out to stability or growth of the population holding EA values.