I’m sure this varies by kid, but I just asked my two older kids, age 9 and 7, and they both said they’re very glad that we decided to have them even if the world ends and everyone dies at some point in the next few years.
Which makes lots of sense to me: they seem quite happy, and it’s not surprising they would be opposed to never getting to exist even if it isn’t a full lifetime.
I think the idea here was sort of “if the kid is unaware and death comes suddenly and swiftly they at least got a few years of life out of it”… cold as it sounds. But anyway this also assume the EY kind of FOOM scenario rather than one of the many others in which people are around, and the world just gets shittier and shittier.
It’s a pretty difficult topic to grasp with, especially given how much regret can come with not having had children in hindsight. Can’t say I have any answers for it. But it’s obviously not as simple as this answer makes it.
Yeah, but assuming your p(doom) isn’t really high, this needs to balanced against the chance that AI goes well, and your kid has a really, really, really good life.
I don’t expect my daughter to ever have a job, but think that in more than half of worlds that seem possible to me right now, she has a very satisfying life—one that is better than it would be otherwise in part because she never has a job.
If your timelines are short-ish, you could likely have a child afterwards, because even if you’re a bit on the old side, hey, what, you don’t expect the ASI to find ways to improve health and fertility later in life?
I think the most important scenario to balance against is “nothing happens”, which is where you get shafted if you wait too long to have a child.
+ the obvious fact that it might matter to the kid that they’re going to die
(edit: fwiw I broadly think people who want to have kids should have kids)
I’m sure this varies by kid, but I just asked my two older kids, age 9 and 7, and they both said they’re very glad that we decided to have them even if the world ends and everyone dies at some point in the next few years.
Which makes lots of sense to me: they seem quite happy, and it’s not surprising they would be opposed to never getting to exist even if it isn’t a full lifetime.
How would you expect the end of the world to take place if the AI doom scenarios turn out to be true?
I think the idea here was sort of “if the kid is unaware and death comes suddenly and swiftly they at least got a few years of life out of it”… cold as it sounds. But anyway this also assume the EY kind of FOOM scenario rather than one of the many others in which people are around, and the world just gets shittier and shittier.
It’s a pretty difficult topic to grasp with, especially given how much regret can come with not having had children in hindsight. Can’t say I have any answers for it. But it’s obviously not as simple as this answer makes it.
Yeah, but assuming your p(doom) isn’t really high, this needs to balanced against the chance that AI goes well, and your kid has a really, really, really good life.
I don’t expect my daughter to ever have a job, but think that in more than half of worlds that seem possible to me right now, she has a very satisfying life—one that is better than it would be otherwise in part because she never has a job.
If your timelines are short-ish, you could likely have a child afterwards, because even if you’re a bit on the old side, hey, what, you don’t expect the ASI to find ways to improve health and fertility later in life?
I think the most important scenario to balance against is “nothing happens”, which is where you get shafted if you wait too long to have a child.
Could you please briefly describe the median future you expect?