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James_Miller comments on Open Thread, Jul. 20 - Jul. 26, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: MrMind 20 July 2015 06:55AM

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Comment author: James_Miller 20 July 2015 11:01:26PM 6 points [-]

Our (nearly) cavemen-optimized brains fear our children will starve or be eaten if we don't help them. Sexual jealousy is probably genetically encoded meaning lots of men want their mates to be exclusive to them. The following is pure speculation with absolutely no evidence behind it: but I wonder if a problem with open relationships involving couples planning on having kids is that the man might (for genetic reasons) care less for a child even if he knows with certainty that the child is theirs. A gene that caused a man to care more for children whose mothers were thought to be sexually exclusive with the man might increase reproductive fitness.

Comment author: VoiceOfRa 21 July 2015 07:37:37AM 4 points [-]

but I wonder if a problem with open relationships involving couples planning on having kids is that the man might (for genetic reasons) care less for a child even if he knows with certainty that the child is theirs.

Yes, until recently it was impossible to know with certainty that the child was his.

And even today feminist organizations are doing their best to keep it that way. For example, they managed to criminalize paternity testing in France.

Comment author: Username 22 July 2015 11:23:14AM 0 points [-]

they managed to criminalize paternity testing in France

By that standard, sex is also criminalized in many countries -- after all, it's only legal if the participants consent.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of the French law, but your interpretation of facts seems a little... creative.

Comment author: Jiro 22 July 2015 10:08:23PM 3 points [-]

They criminalized it for the main purpose that one would need to use it for.