I’m sorry but I find you’re nitpicking on words out of context, rather than to engage with what I mean. Maybe my EN is imperfect but I think not that unreadable:
A)
The word “just” in the sense used here is always a danger sign. “X is just Y” means “X is Y and is not a certain other thing Z”, but without stating the Z.
… ‘just’ might sometimes be used in such abbreviated way, but here, the second part of my very sentence itself readily says what I mean with the ‘just’ (see “w/o meaning you’re …”).
B)
You quoting me: “It is equally all too natural for me to still keep my specific (and excessive) focus & care on the well-being of my ‘natural’ successors, i.e. on what we traditionally call”
You: Too natural? Excessive focus and care? What we traditionally call? This all sounds to me like you are trying not to know something.
Recall, as I wrote in my comment, I try to support “why care [under my stated views], even about ‘my’ own future”. I try to rephrase the sentence you quote, in a paragraph that avoids the 3 elements you criticize. I hope the meaning becomes clear then:
Evolution has ingrained into my mind with a very strong preference to care for the next-period inhabitant(s) X of my body. This deeply ingrained preference to preserve the well-being of X tends to override everything else. So, however much my reflections suggest to me that X is not as unquestionably related to me as I instinctively would have thought before closer examination, I will not be able to give up my commonly observed preferences for doing (mostly) the best for X, in situations where there is no cloning or anything of the like going on.
(you can safely ignore “(and excessive)”. With it, I just meant to casually mention also we tend to be too egoistic; our strong specific focus on (or care for) our own body’s future is not good for the world overall. But this is quite a separate thing.)
I didn’t mean to be nitpicking, and I believe your words have well expressed your thoughts. But I found it striking that you treat preference as a brick wall that cannot be further questioned (or if you do, all you find behind it is “evolution”), while professing the virtue of an examined self.
In our present-day world I am as sure as I need to be that (barring having a stroke in the night) I am going to wake up tomorrow as me, little changed from today. I would find speculations about teleporters much more interesting if such machines actually existed. My preferences are not limited to my likely remaining lifespan, and the fact that I will not be around to have them then does not mean that I cannot have them and act on them now.
I’m sorry but I find you’re nitpicking on words out of context, rather than to engage with what I mean. Maybe my EN is imperfect but I think not that unreadable:
A)
… ‘just’ might sometimes be used in such abbreviated way, but here, the second part of my very sentence itself readily says what I mean with the ‘just’ (see “w/o meaning you’re …”).
B)
Recall, as I wrote in my comment, I try to support “why care [under my stated views], even about ‘my’ own future”. I try to rephrase the sentence you quote, in a paragraph that avoids the 3 elements you criticize. I hope the meaning becomes clear then:
Evolution has ingrained into my mind with a very strong preference to care for the next-period inhabitant(s) X of my body. This deeply ingrained preference to preserve the well-being of X tends to override everything else. So, however much my reflections suggest to me that X is not as unquestionably related to me as I instinctively would have thought before closer examination, I will not be able to give up my commonly observed preferences for doing (mostly) the best for X, in situations where there is no cloning or anything of the like going on.
(you can safely ignore “(and excessive)”. With it, I just meant to casually mention also we tend to be too egoistic; our strong specific focus on (or care for) our own body’s future is not good for the world overall. But this is quite a separate thing.)
I didn’t mean to be nitpicking, and I believe your words have well expressed your thoughts. But I found it striking that you treat preference as a brick wall that cannot be further questioned (or if you do, all you find behind it is “evolution”), while professing the virtue of an examined self.
In our present-day world I am as sure as I need to be that (barring having a stroke in the night) I am going to wake up tomorrow as me, little changed from today. I would find speculations about teleporters much more interesting if such machines actually existed. My preferences are not limited to my likely remaining lifespan, and the fact that I will not be around to have them then does not mean that I cannot have them and act on them now.