one could sit down and play WoW for the rest of one’s life and, in theory, be perfectly happy about it.
Yes, but will (s)he reproduce?
Iron deficiency impedes survival and reproduction. Same with WoW—instead of spending resources on raising one’s tribal status, getting a good mate and having their children survive to reproductive age, one is spending time and resources on raising status in a nonexistent tribe—its members very rarely meet, let alone mate.
I feel like we ought to start letting go of evolutionary goals as if they are our own. I explicitly do not wish to reproduce. I’d enjoy being a father but I’d be plenty happy adopting and raising a child who already exists and is parentless. A higher incidence of shared alleles and some related cultural temporal idea of “my genetic child” mean nothing to me. There’s some gut instinct for being a genetic father, but it’s minor. Evolution doesn’t really give a shit about my happiness (i.e. utility function) and the feeling is mutual.
spending resources on raising one’s tribal status, getting a good mate and having their children survive to reproductive age
Last I checked, I do not live in the savanna. These qualities are no longer associated with reproductive fitness in Western societies with even moderate social support networks.
More to the point, why should I care? You were out there having kids, I was in here getting epic loots and pwning n00bs. You like what you did. I like what I did. There’s nothing to say that either of us was “right.” As a fact about the world, more of your alleles will exist in future generations. Also as a fact about the world, my avatar will have more achievement points than yours. We’ll both be thoroughly dead. You are more successful by evolutionary standards, and probably by social ones as well, but I don’t care, because I’m more successful by my standards, which frankly are the only ones I care about, and reason alone cannot say that your standards are in any sense better than mine.
Yes, but will (s)he reproduce?
Iron deficiency impedes survival and reproduction. Same with WoW—instead of spending resources on raising one’s tribal status, getting a good mate and having their children survive to reproductive age, one is spending time and resources on raising status in a nonexistent tribe—its members very rarely meet, let alone mate.
I feel like we ought to start letting go of evolutionary goals as if they are our own. I explicitly do not wish to reproduce. I’d enjoy being a father but I’d be plenty happy adopting and raising a child who already exists and is parentless. A higher incidence of shared alleles and some related cultural temporal idea of “my genetic child” mean nothing to me. There’s some gut instinct for being a genetic father, but it’s minor. Evolution doesn’t really give a shit about my happiness (i.e. utility function) and the feeling is mutual.
Last I checked, I do not live in the savanna. These qualities are no longer associated with reproductive fitness in Western societies with even moderate social support networks.
More to the point, why should I care? You were out there having kids, I was in here getting epic loots and pwning n00bs. You like what you did. I like what I did. There’s nothing to say that either of us was “right.” As a fact about the world, more of your alleles will exist in future generations. Also as a fact about the world, my avatar will have more achievement points than yours. We’ll both be thoroughly dead. You are more successful by evolutionary standards, and probably by social ones as well, but I don’t care, because I’m more successful by my standards, which frankly are the only ones I care about, and reason alone cannot say that your standards are in any sense better than mine.