For the record, I wouldn’t describe having children to ‘impart positive values and competence to their descendants’ as a ‘common thought’ in effective altruism, at least any time recently.
I’ve been involved in the community in London for three years and in Berkeley for a year, and don’t recall ever having an in-person conversation about having children to promote values etc. I’ve seen it discussed maybe twice on the internet over those years.
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Additionally: This seems like an ok state of affairs to me. Having children is a huge commitment (a significant fraction of a life’s work). Having children is also a major part of many people’s life goals (worth the huge commitment). Compared to those factors, it seems kind of implausible even in the best case that the effects you mention would be decisive.
Then: If one can determine a priori that these effects will rarely affect the decision of whether to have children, the value of information as discussed in this piece is small.
For the record, I wouldn’t describe having children to ‘impart positive values and competence to their descendants’ as a ‘common thought’ in effective altruism, at least any time recently.
I’ve been involved in the community in London for three years and in Berkeley for a year, and don’t recall ever having an in-person conversation about having children to promote values etc. I’ve seen it discussed maybe twice on the internet over those years.
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Additionally: This seems like an ok state of affairs to me. Having children is a huge commitment (a significant fraction of a life’s work). Having children is also a major part of many people’s life goals (worth the huge commitment). Compared to those factors, it seems kind of implausible even in the best case that the effects you mention would be decisive.
Then: If one can determine a priori that these effects will rarely affect the decision of whether to have children, the value of information as discussed in this piece is small.