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Re:The Mythology of Dog Years by dllthomas on Thursday October 02, 2014 @11:08AM (#8401017)
So if we take as given that you're going to be focused on the evolutionary component, if you can no longer reproduce then walk up your family tree until you find your closest relative with progeny.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin_selection#Hamilton.27s_rule

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclusive_fitness

Re:The Mythology of Dog Years by guard-of-terra on Thursday October 02, 2014 @11:13AM (#8401029)
I'm not a walking set of genes. I'm a human being.

What if I don't feel that my "closest relative with progeny" is in any way related to me?

I don't care about inclusive fitness. Let the nature do that trick. I care about reproducing something resembling of myself. If my nearest genetic relatives don't resemble myself in any way, I don't care if they reproduce.

Re:The Mythology of Dog Years by dllthomas on Thursday October 02, 2014 @11:15AM (#8401049)
"I'm not a walking set of genes. I'm a human being."

Certainly. But then I'd say that a huge portion of what makes you you is not genetic at all, and like I said much earlier you can always pass on memes.

Re:The Mythology of Dog Years by guard-of-terra on Thursday October 02, 2014 @11:38AM (#8401151)
I can't reliably pass on memes because I don't have a clan. I'm a lone nation of one (well, two, anyway), and this nation is going to disappear once we die.

I can give memes to other unrelated people but I don't know whether they use those for good.

Re:The Mythology of Dog Years by dllthomas on Thursday October 02, 2014 @11:57AM (#8401256)
You don't know that your children will "use those for good" either. Focus on spreading memes that promote doing good, however you define "doing good".
Re:The Mythology of Dog Years by guard-of-terra on Thursday October 02, 2014 @12:09PM (#8401338)
I don't think that promoting doing good works. It seems that bad things are much easier to promote these days. I don't believe in it anymore.

Children are safe bet in that regards (if you failed - means you just passed your failureness to them, good)

Re:The Mythology of Dog Years by dllthomas on Thursday October 02, 2014 @01:22PM (#8401825)
"It seems that bad things are much easier to promote these days."

I don't see why that doesn't mean you should work harder at it. Maybe the marginal benefit is minimal, but if the marginal benefit of everything else is zero then it might still be the best option.

Re:The Mythology of Dog Years by guard-of-terra on Thursday October 02, 2014 @03:16PM (#8402508)
It's humiliating trying to walk thru the wall by fruitlees effort.