simplicio comments on Open Thread June 2010, Part 2 - Less Wrong
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That's a good question. For example, we value tribalism in this "alien god" sense, but have moved away from it due to ethical considerations. Why?
Two main reasons, I suspect: (1) we learned to empathize with strangers and realize that there was no very defensible difference between their interests and ours; (2) tribalism sometimes led to terrible consequences for our tribe.
Some of us value genetic relatedness in our children, again in an alien god sense. Why move away from that? Because:
(1) There is no terribly defensible moral difference between the interests of a child with your genes or without.
Furthermore, filial affection is far more influenced by the proxy metric of personal intimacy with one's children than by a propositional belief that they share your genes. (At least, that is true in my case.) Analogously, a man having heterosexual sex doesn't generally lose his erection as soon as he puts on a condom.
It's not for me to tell you your values, but it seems rather odd to actually choose inclusive genetic fitness consciously, when the proxy metric for genetic relatedness - namely, filial intimacy - is what actually drives parental emotions. It's like being unable to enjoy non-procreative sex, isn't it?