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.
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.