Who says you contribute to the pool at the same rate you’d contribute to your own children? Surely other people in the pool would have different priorities than you, wouldn’t they? What if there are N people in the pool and you contribute 1/5N to the children in each pool?
Add that to the fact, that maybe you only have one standout chromosome, and you could easily see a situation where genetic analysis of the population in your family + your pool shows a sudden disappearance of 90% of your genes with a proliferation of 5% of your genes. Is that equivalent to having children? Some people might say it’s not.
Also, yes, obviously if you were trying to maximize your genetic genetic density you’d do all of the above: contribute to pools, clone yourself a couple times, have children normally (or with chromosomal selection), and contribute to a sperm banks. That’d be the route to take if you view maximizing genetic density as a terminal goal.
I think the reality is that people have some instinctual need to see more of themselves and their loved ones in the world, and that a learned person would use genetic inheritance as a proxy for this emotional non-quantifiable goal. I also suspect it’s a threshold goal, and not a maximization goal, which is why people want some number N of children and not “as many children as I can afford to have”.
Well it depends on how large the pool is, but unless other members of the pool have a significantly higher set of polygenic scores than you it’s pretty likely you’ll have roughly equal contributions. I suppose I’d have to do the math to see exactly how big of an influence that would have.
I also suspect it’s a threshold goal, and not a maximization goal, which is why people want some number N of children and not “as many children as I can afford to have”.
Interesting hypothesis. This matches fairly well with my own observations, though that might just be because there is no way for parents to have a quarter of their DNA be in any of their children.
One interesting test might be to see if grandparents favor grandchildren with more of their DNA than ones with less, since there can be variance among grandchildren and not among children.
Who says you contribute to the pool at the same rate you’d contribute to your own children? Surely other people in the pool would have different priorities than you, wouldn’t they? What if there are N people in the pool and you contribute 1/5N to the children in each pool?
Add that to the fact, that maybe you only have one standout chromosome, and you could easily see a situation where genetic analysis of the population in your family + your pool shows a sudden disappearance of 90% of your genes with a proliferation of 5% of your genes. Is that equivalent to having children? Some people might say it’s not.
Also, yes, obviously if you were trying to maximize your genetic genetic density you’d do all of the above: contribute to pools, clone yourself a couple times, have children normally (or with chromosomal selection), and contribute to a sperm banks. That’d be the route to take if you view maximizing genetic density as a terminal goal.
I think the reality is that people have some instinctual need to see more of themselves and their loved ones in the world, and that a learned person would use genetic inheritance as a proxy for this emotional non-quantifiable goal. I also suspect it’s a threshold goal, and not a maximization goal, which is why people want some number N of children and not “as many children as I can afford to have”.
Well it depends on how large the pool is, but unless other members of the pool have a significantly higher set of polygenic scores than you it’s pretty likely you’ll have roughly equal contributions. I suppose I’d have to do the math to see exactly how big of an influence that would have.
Interesting hypothesis. This matches fairly well with my own observations, though that might just be because there is no way for parents to have a quarter of their DNA be in any of their children.
One interesting test might be to see if grandparents favor grandchildren with more of their DNA than ones with less, since there can be variance among grandchildren and not among children.