The justice of the argument is clear to me. I have already made arrangements for my children to come to not be genetically mine. When the time comes, I will call upon their aid, presuming the sequencing does not tell us there are incompatibilities; and we will select embryos to maximize the quality of life for my child to come.

why are you talking like a necromancer

[–] self@awful.systems 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

holy fuck, I can’t stop picturing it

[–] YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems 6 points 3 weeks ago

Hang on I've got to reread this whole thing in a skeletor voice now.

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 3 points 2 weeks ago

Guy fused a phylactery and a prophylactic, making a prophylactery.

(apologies for the necro-post?)

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 20 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I think that in this particular instance, it's OK to kinkshame

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 11 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

yeah filing this under my "ok so you know you can just have kinks, right? like you don't need to intellectually justify your kink. Have you seen a therapist?" folder

[–] self@awful.systems 18 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

I will find someone who I consider better than me in relevant ways, and have them provide the genetic material. I think that it would be immoral not to, and that it is impossible not to think this way after thinking seriously about it.

we’re definitely not a cult, I don’t know why anyone would think that

Consider it from your child’s perspective. There are many people who they could be born to. Who would they pick? Do you have any right to deny them the father they would choose? It would be like kidnapping a child – an unutterably selfish act. You have a duty to your children – you must act in their best interest, not yours.

I just don’t understand how so many TESCREAL thoughts and ideas fit this broken fucking pattern. “have you thought about ? but have you really thought about it? you must not have cause if you did you would agree it was !”

and you really can tell you’re dealing with a cult when you start from the pretense that a child that doesn’t exist yet has a perspective — these fucking weirdos will have heaven and hell by any means, no matter how much math and statistics they have to abuse past the breaking point to do it.

and just like with any religious fundamentalist, the child doesn’t have any autonomy. how could they, if all their behavior has already been simulated to perfection? there’s no room for an imperfect child’s happiness; for familial bonding; for normal human shit. all that must be cope, cause it doesn’t fit into a broken TESCREAL worldview.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 17 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

"Consider it from the perspective of someone who does not exist and therefore has no preferences. Who would they pick?"

[–] rook@awful.systems 12 points 3 weeks ago

Funny how right-wing types reaaaaaly love unborn kids. They’re the best focus group for almost any policy!

[–] zogwarg@awful.systems 4 points 3 weeks ago

And following the foregone conclusion of the author, someone who can never exist and therefore will remain forever hypothetical. (Unless the basilisk would also want to punish all you possible hypothetical children as extra incentive?).

PS- This is almost "A modest proposal" levels of bad, without being satire.

[–] rook@awful.systems 12 points 3 weeks ago

I will find someone who I consider better than me in relevant ways,

Lemme guess, rich, white, asshole? (now I write this, I realise it could be about the author of the blog post too, and not just the bull he’s seeking).

These people continue to be so utterly delusional about the nature of success. The desperate need to believe that genetics is destiny, and that the ultra-wealthy got that way because they are also ultra-competent instead of merely being ultra-lucky and/or ultra-rapacious.

I guess the future is a race to see what comes first… the ultra-wealthy habsburging themselves into oblivion, the oceans boiling, or a resurgence in the construction of hand-built artisanal tumbrels.

[–] dashdsrdash@awful.systems 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Tchah! Decker does not go far enough!

It is clear that there must be people better suited to raise children than a dimwit like him! He should arrange for his genetic superiors to breed, then give the babies to the perfect parents, and he should give them the one thing he has of value: money!

(and please have nothing else to do with children ever again, k thx bye)

[–] BigMuffin69@awful.systems 3 points 2 weeks ago

Same reaction. I don't see how you can stop at it's immoral for me to not breed with the Übermensch when the clear logical end is it's immoral for me to breed entirely. As a childless person, do I get to go to EA meet ups and wag my fingers at them for not being moral now?

[–] fnix@awful.systems 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It’s also telling how he shies away from bringing his line of thought to its logical conclusion: if you think you need to “optimize” your child’s genetics to perfection, why shouldn’t you try to optimize their environment like that as well? If you’re such an imperfect being with all your faulty genes after all then it’s probable you will make mistakes during parenting, so by your own logic thinking you would be suited to raise a child in the first place is a terrible crime no different from refusing cuckoldry.

And they call this “effective altruism”. Jesus Christ these people need help.

[–] Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I thought the same thing too, but then I remembered. They don't believe that environment matters. It's all in the genes!

[–] self@awful.systems 5 points 2 weeks ago

of course — how can you be a pure individualist being who pulled themselves up from their bootstraps since birth if trivial things like parenting and the economic conditions that influenced everything from the quality of nutrition you got to the schools available to you to the amount of stress you had at home, mattered?

[–] BigMuffin69@awful.systems 5 points 2 weeks ago

I will find someone who I consider better than me in relevant ways, and have them provide the genetic material. I think that it would be immoral not to, and that it is impossible not to think this way after thinking seriously about it.

Corporate needs you to find the difference between this^ and our local cult leader is the sun god reborn, it's every woman's duty to carry his seed. It is immoral to deny his divine will.

[–] V0ldek@awful.systems 3 points 2 weeks ago

Funnily enough he makes a really strong case as to why he specifically definitely shouldn't be a father.

If you asked an embryo to pick parents it'd be like "oof, anyone but that guy please"

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 18 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Laying down the intellectual framework for giving Elon Musk droit de seigneur, for the national good.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 6 points 3 weeks ago

Sorry for the tangent, but does it drive anyone else crazy when people claim this didn't exist/was never enacted? Humans with power suck, and feudalism wasn't particularly rife with checks and balances.

We know it happened because the idea and powerful men who were literally the law existed simultaneously.

[–] YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems 15 points 3 weeks ago

Hat tip to the commenter over there who says point-blank "this is just eugenics."

Also gotta love the Rat community treating very contentious assumptions like settled fact, particularly re: heritability.

[–] Architeuthis@awful.systems 15 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

The justice of the argument is clear to me. I have already made arrangements for my children to come to not be genetically mine. When the time comes, I will call upon their aid, presuming the sequencing does not tell us there are incompatibilities

I like how that implies that he keeps a running genetic tally of all his acquaintances in case he needs to tap them for genetic material, which is not creepy at all.

(Rorschach voice) Watched them today—parade their genetic blessings like medals earned in some cosmic lottery. Strong jawlines, symmetrical faces, eyes that catch the light just right. Retrieved 23AndMe card from alley behind 41st street. Admins restrained commenter screaming how it's all just eugenics. Is everyone but me going mad?

[–] Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Something about this though, it's interesting the way it stands in stark opposition to like, Elon Musk's reproductive strategy of artificially inseminating every woman he interacts with. Would love to see them fight on the importance of eugenics vs spreading your seed far and wide.

[–] YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems 11 points 3 weeks ago

I mean, I suspect that when he says he wants someone else's genes he probably means Elon's, so they probably wouldn't actually disagree over much. Because he's successful and success is determined by genes and therefore he has the best ones, you see.

[–] sailor_sega_saturn@awful.systems 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Wait that's a strategy? I thought Mr. Musk was just in a sort of perpetual horny/lonely mid-life crisis mode or something like that.

[–] Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems 5 points 2 weeks ago

That's a fair assumption, but as far as I know all his kids have been born through IVF or surrogates so there's a possibility he doesn't even fuck.

[–] V0ldek@awful.systems 1 points 2 weeks ago

When you consider Elon Musk everything is a strategy, even when he falls face-first and exposes his whole ass. It has to be a strategy because he is the smartest boy you see

[–] slopjockey@awful.systems 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Link?

[–] GorillasAreForEating@awful.systems 6 points 3 weeks ago

Sorry, don't know how that happened

https://nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/why-your-children-shouldnt-be-your