LWers would not be the only ones to try this tactic, though. There's a whole movement based on producing more evangelical Christians.
Another tactic, better at changing ratios, would be to adopt existing children. This could propagate rationalists' memes, though not genes, and it's unpredictable how much those two things impact whether your children come out like you want (e.g. rationalist, or evangelical). And it assumes you want more rationalists compared to others, as opposed to just more rationalists, period.
LWers would not be the only ones to try this tactic, though. There's a whole movement based on producing more evangelical Christians.
Well, yes. I did use Amish as the example of a group already using this tactic. But rationality is about winning, so clearly if rationalists put their minds to it they would be better at it. ;)
Another tactic, better at changing ratios, would be to adopt existing children.
Hey it worked for Shakers. Until government said no more mass adoptions for you.
What is P that government agencies might try to interfere with o...
So I found this post quite interesting:
http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2009/03/gnxp-readers-do-not-breed.php
(I'm quite sure that the demographics of this site closely parallel the demographics on Gene Expression).
Research seems to indicate that people are happiest when they're married, but that each child imposes a net decrease in happiness (parents in fact, enjoy a boost in happiness once their children leave the house). It's possible, of course, that adult children may be pleasurable to interact with, but it seems that in many cases, the parents want to interact with the children more than the children want to interact with the parent (although daughters generally seem more interactive with their parents).
So how do you think being child-free relates to rationality/happiness? Of course, Bryan Caplan (who is pro-natalist) cites research (from Judith Rich Harris) saying that parents really have less influence over their children than they think they have (so it's a good idea for parents to spend less effort in trying to "mold" their children, since their efforts will inevitably result in much frustration). And in fact, if parents did this, it's possible that they may beat the average.
(This doesn't convince me in my specific case, however, and I'm still committed to not having children).