This may be an overstatement. I think the moral minimum looks more like “bring children into the world in a way that’s consistent with the value system you plan to teach them and hope that they live by”.
If you want to teach a value system of global optimization, where every dollar should be spent to have the maximum possible impact to global quality of life, you’re probably adopting rather than conceiving anyways… but this great an investment into a single individual is likely inconsistent with those values.
If you want to teach a value system of local optimization, where every person ought to first do what’s best for themself and their loved ones before attempting to intervene in the lives of strangers, then it might be inconsistent to gamble with a family member’s lifetime wellbeing when you could instead have stacked the odds in their favor.
If you want to teach a value system of global optimization, where every dollar should be spent to have the maximum possible impact to global quality of life, you’re probably adopting rather than conceiving anyways… but this great an investment into a single individual is likely inconsistent with those values.
I think this is incorrect. Behaviors and talents are to a large degree heritable. If you want future people to share your values, one of the best ways to do that is to have kids who are disproportionately likely to share those values.
And while you can of course attempt to teach your kids your values, genetics plays a major role in determining what kinds of values we adopt.
This is one of the major reasons why “not having kids because of climate change” is not just ineffective but actively counterproductive; it ensures there are less people in the future that will be willing to make large sacrifices for the good of the whole.
I agree that many behaviors are heritable, but I model that inheritance as emerging from the intersection of genetic and environmental factors. I hadn’t previously considered generalizing from genetic behavioral proclivities to what values people hold.
genetics plays a major role in determining what kinds of values we adopt.
Could you point me toward the data from which you’ve drawn this conclusion? I imagine that there are enough adoptee studies in the world to point at a link pretty conclusively if one exists, but I’d also like to skip straight to the most applicable ones if you could recommend them.
Political attitudes seem to be about 30-70% heritable. Interestingly, people’s genetics seem to have a stronger effect on their attitudes the more politically engaged they are.
This may be an overstatement. I think the moral minimum looks more like “bring children into the world in a way that’s consistent with the value system you plan to teach them and hope that they live by”.
If you want to teach a value system of global optimization, where every dollar should be spent to have the maximum possible impact to global quality of life, you’re probably adopting rather than conceiving anyways… but this great an investment into a single individual is likely inconsistent with those values.
If you want to teach a value system of local optimization, where every person ought to first do what’s best for themself and their loved ones before attempting to intervene in the lives of strangers, then it might be inconsistent to gamble with a family member’s lifetime wellbeing when you could instead have stacked the odds in their favor.
I think this is incorrect. Behaviors and talents are to a large degree heritable. If you want future people to share your values, one of the best ways to do that is to have kids who are disproportionately likely to share those values.
And while you can of course attempt to teach your kids your values, genetics plays a major role in determining what kinds of values we adopt.
This is one of the major reasons why “not having kids because of climate change” is not just ineffective but actively counterproductive; it ensures there are less people in the future that will be willing to make large sacrifices for the good of the whole.
I agree that many behaviors are heritable, but I model that inheritance as emerging from the intersection of genetic and environmental factors. I hadn’t previously considered generalizing from genetic behavioral proclivities to what values people hold.
Could you point me toward the data from which you’ve drawn this conclusion? I imagine that there are enough adoptee studies in the world to point at a link pretty conclusively if one exists, but I’d also like to skip straight to the most applicable ones if you could recommend them.
Political attitudes seem to be about 30-70% heritable. Interestingly, people’s genetics seem to have a stronger effect on their attitudes the more politically engaged they are.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/01/opinion/politics-genetics-research.html