Cheers! I appreciate the welcome. max-greece, thank you for reposting a welcome, that says a lot. I'll spend some time going through threads here.
For the past 10 years (roughly), I've been reading, and generally trying to figure things out for myself, so I expect to be considered "a bit confused". That's the reason I was looking for a good forum.
I'll give you that it was a strangely phrased question. I'm sure I could have done better, and probably will when it's not 2 am! I'm somewhat of an insomniac, so sleep is random and varied for me. Hopefully it will help if I provide some more information.
I'd like to address this first though:
I did not mean in any way that "maximizing output" was a good thing. Although you could argue that is the only way to maximize the prosperity of our genes, I think that's a discussion of its own.
One of the things I took from reading Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, is that, from an evolutionary viewpoint, we as humans, are merely a "shell" for our genes. That is the basis for me asking this question. If we are just a shell for our genes, are we not then responsible for the continued survival for our genes? If we are, then does that not lead to certain moral obligations?
I'm getting an overwhelming "NO", which is interesting. So I'll leave it at that, but hopefully this clarifies things a bit, and makes the question a bit less strange, and hard to take as real.
For the past 10 years (roughly), I've been reading, and generally trying to figure things out for myself, so I expect to be considered "a bit confused". That's the reason I was looking for a good forum.
I'll give you that it was a strangely phrased question. I'm sure I could have done better, and probably will when it's not 2 am! I'm somewhat of an insomniac, so sleep is random and varied for me. Hopefully it will help if I provide some more information.
I'd like to address this first though:
Quote:Are you bound morally to fucking (or otherwise raping) every person potentially compatible for offspring? Maximizing the PROGENY of 'our genes' would also require raping children who have become pubescent, because if you don't, you are not maximizing your output.
I did not mean in any way that "maximizing output" was a good thing. Although you could argue that is the only way to maximize the prosperity of our genes, I think that's a discussion of its own.
One of the things I took from reading Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, is that, from an evolutionary viewpoint, we as humans, are merely a "shell" for our genes. That is the basis for me asking this question. If we are just a shell for our genes, are we not then responsible for the continued survival for our genes? If we are, then does that not lead to certain moral obligations?
I'm getting an overwhelming "NO", which is interesting. So I'll leave it at that, but hopefully this clarifies things a bit, and makes the question a bit less strange, and hard to take as real.
