If I may abstract a bit from the Shakerism example...
I agree that we should be able to “convert” people more cheaply than other movements could in the past. But that doesn’t mean EAs relatively lower fecundity couldn’t pose some issues for the LR sustainability of the movement.
The question of “can we sustain the movement over time?” is whether 1. we can convert other peoples children more effectively than competing ideologies can convert ours and 2. that we can do so enough to make up for our relatively lower birthrates.
(Assuming we don’t find a third way involving beings that don’t die).
Maybe we convert our way to a stable transmission of values across generations, but I’m a bit skeptical since I’m having a hard time imagining a specific instance of a value system that made up for a lower birth rate by having a higher conversion factor. Catholicism? Since the priests / monks were prohibited from having children?
If I may abstract a bit from the Shakerism example...
I agree that we should be able to “convert” people more cheaply than other movements could in the past. But that doesn’t mean EAs relatively lower fecundity couldn’t pose some issues for the LR sustainability of the movement.
The question of “can we sustain the movement over time?” is whether 1. we can convert other peoples children more effectively than competing ideologies can convert ours and 2. that we can do so enough to make up for our relatively lower birthrates.
(Assuming we don’t find a third way involving beings that don’t die).
Maybe we convert our way to a stable transmission of values across generations, but I’m a bit skeptical since I’m having a hard time imagining a specific instance of a value system that made up for a lower birth rate by having a higher conversion factor. Catholicism? Since the priests / monks were prohibited from having children?
Big +1