Psychohistorian comments on Experiential Pica - Less Wrong

80 Post author: Alicorn 16 August 2009 09:23PM

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Comment author: Psychohistorian 18 August 2009 06:02:36AM *  7 points [-]

spending resources on raising one's tribal status, getting a good mate and having their children survive to reproductive age

Last I checked, I do not live in the savanna. These qualities are no longer associated with reproductive fitness in Western societies with even moderate social support networks.

More to the point, why should I care? You were out there having kids, I was in here getting epic loots and pwning n00bs. You like what you did. I like what I did. There's nothing to say that either of us was "right." As a fact about the world, more of your alleles will exist in future generations. Also as a fact about the world, my avatar will have more achievement points than yours. We'll both be thoroughly dead. You are more successful by evolutionary standards, and probably by social ones as well, but I don't care, because I'm more successful by my standards, which frankly are the only ones I care about, and reason alone cannot say that your standards are in any sense better than mine.