I guess duty is a hard concept to sell. It's much tougher to persuade you that you have the duty to do something, than it is to, say, teach you a catchy song or a spectacular legend. It helps a lot to be able to say "the all-seeing god has laid this duty upon you". If you did manage to invent and spread a meme that had the same effect, but didn't conflict with science, then I see a lot of history-making potential there!
(By the way, how do you do italics on HN?)
Re:Think Again: Global Aging
by jessriedel on Wednesday October 13, 2010 @06:06PM
(#1789092)
Italics are obtained by putting words in asterisks.
Sure, but why aren't their such memes? I can imagine all sorts of hypothetical cultures which don't feature judging gods but do feature a duty to have children.