The religion on census data of people living in the netherlands also was just a bunch of letters, till the Nazis invaded, then suddenly the bunch of letters got another meaning.

What the Nazis would have done if they had gotten their fingers onto such a ddatabase is anybodies guess.

high time preference thinking

Only gotta last 80 years, it's pretty rational given the constraints. The what-ifs are unlikely to materialize at all, low probability to happen to you, and avoiding them if they do materialize requires that neither you nor any of your relatives submit their dna or have any contact with the justice system ever.

DNA is already protected from use by insurance companies so that's a future harm that already got squashed.

Funny you picked 80 years. It's been roughly 80 years since members of a certain ethnic group were hunted down, corralled, and murdered because of their lineage and genetics.

And their murderers mostly only had census data and people willing to snitch on their neighbors to go on. A DNA database? Oof.

Thankfully time only goes forward and since I don't expect a large scale ethnic cleansing among the developed world since our birth rates are already below replacement I think we're fine.

Tell that to China, Russia, and Trump.

Thank you for your interest in 23andMe, unfortunately we have decided to not move forward with your application.

That's ethical egoism, not rationalism.

Considering the second- and third-order effects of one's own decisions is obligatory in civilized society.

Of course, how could I forget. My DNA is also used for medical research so I'm helping develop novel treatments to all manners of genetic diseases, and helping my future relatives uncover health risks.

blind optimism

Negativity bias.

Years ago I would have agreed with you but I have my anxiety under control now.