I have the sense that you’re putting this up as a reductio ad absurdum. Yet celibacy (the voluntary sort, not merely not being able to get any, hinted at here) is recommended in most traditions of searching for enlightenment, and not only religious ones. Socrates said that in old age he was glad of the diminishing of sexual desire, as becoming free of a slave driver. Darwin gave careful thought to the pros and cons of marriage—the time lost from scientific work to maintaining it, against the support available from it. And Eliezer wrote some years back that working on FAI was too important to leave time for a girlfriend (although that seems to have backfired).
So yes, sex should definitely be on the line as a recreation whose usefulness must be seriously weighed, more seriously than you seem to have intended.
[ETA: Socrates’ metaphor was actually that of being dragged about by a wild animal.]
It seems to me that dating is an open-ended resource drain, but sex is unlikely to become dangerously addictive due to built-in upper limits on the percentage of one’s time spent on it (fatigue, etc.)
By “sex”, I really had in mind the whole intimate relationships thing. Outside of geekish fantasies of societies in which two people just say “how about it?” and get on with it, in the real world it is never that easy.
Geeky, social misfit speaking here, and I have pretty ready access to “no strings attached” sex from quite a few people. This is not abnormal for my social group, either. I realize I’m somewhat of an exception, but it’s really not that hard to learn how to do this yourself if you live in a major city...
I have the sense that you’re putting this up as a reductio ad absurdum. Yet celibacy (the voluntary sort, not merely not being able to get any, hinted at here) is recommended in most traditions of searching for enlightenment, and not only religious ones. Socrates said that in old age he was glad of the diminishing of sexual desire, as becoming free of a slave driver. Darwin gave careful thought to the pros and cons of marriage—the time lost from scientific work to maintaining it, against the support available from it. And Eliezer wrote some years back that working on FAI was too important to leave time for a girlfriend (although that seems to have backfired).
So yes, sex should definitely be on the line as a recreation whose usefulness must be seriously weighed, more seriously than you seem to have intended.
[ETA: Socrates’ metaphor was actually that of being dragged about by a wild animal.]
It seems to me that dating is an open-ended resource drain, but sex is unlikely to become dangerously addictive due to built-in upper limits on the percentage of one’s time spent on it (fatigue, etc.)
By “sex”, I really had in mind the whole intimate relationships thing. Outside of geekish fantasies of societies in which two people just say “how about it?” and get on with it, in the real world it is never that easy.
Although, I know a good-looking woman who enjoys sex with different men a lot, and she finds it is that easy.
(No, I’m not going to give out her phone number.)
Geeky, social misfit speaking here, and I have pretty ready access to “no strings attached” sex from quite a few people. This is not abnormal for my social group, either. I realize I’m somewhat of an exception, but it’s really not that hard to learn how to do this yourself if you live in a major city...