Better Future

Baby rapists are very sick people with very dysfunctional brains, they are victims who victimize. Occurrences like this are just a reflection of our dysfunctional society. Don't be ashamed of being a man, don't be proud of being a man either. Your gender most certainly does not connect you in any way to baby rapists. This happened in my country recently. His comments were seen as irrational. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10232457/David-Cunliffe-I-m-sorry-for-being-a-man

By my standards I would say that most adults are not mature enough to consent. So many people getting pregnant and raising children when they really shouldn't.

Thanks guys. These morality calculations are interesting. I think I get the idea. I will read the book.

OP never said his friends wished to kill themselves.

Thanks for the explanation. So UPB only covers interpersonal events? Moral behaviour is interpersonal and virtuous behaviour is more indirect? Taking a misplaced kindle is not covered under UPB because it is not interpersonal. Under UPB the guy at the counter taking your misplaced kindle (if he did) is not doing anything immoral. But his actions would become immoral when you go and ask if he had seen it and he lies?

What if I drop something, realise later and then return to pick it up? Is it universally preferable that no one would have taken what I had misplaced?

If UPB says that it is ok to take a wallet you find as your own then I want no part of it. Who is to say that the person who lost his wallet will not return later to pick it up after realizing he had dropped it? I would call it the theft of lost property. I once lost my wallet. I got a call from the police a day later telling me that a member of the public had handed it in to them. Something that I will forever be grateful for.

I think your friends should be free to make their own value judgements. Why are humans more valuable than any other species?

Smartest 9 year old girl I've ever seen.

This is so great, thanks for posting. Maybe we can make it go viral. I wonder if the actors are anarchists.

Biology is stronger but natural instinct can be overcome by culture. Sometimes the indoctrination can be so strong that people can choose to starve themselves to death. That is rare though because instinct is so strong. Instinct is filtered through our cultural programming. Instead of raping each other we dress up nicely and go to a bar. Unless you live somewhere like the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Women love their children just as much but now there are new forces in our industrialised world. I disagree with that article. Sure, we can get away with mothers returning to work early but that is to disregard the vital importance of parenting. Do you think your mother loved you less because she returned to work when you were 8 weeks old?

Is it altruistic when a new mother gives generously to her baby? Or is it selfish because she does not understand why she does it, she just does it because it makes her happy. Is it selfish when a male seeks female company only for the purpose of sex? I would say that natural is a better word for the behaviours that we describe as altruistic and selfish. We feel good when helping others because we are a social species relying on cooperation to survive. A new mother does not choose to be generous to her baby, it comes naturally. When would giving be truly altruistic? Would there need to be a lack of neurochemical reward for the giver while he simultaneously cares about the feelings of the receiver? How could a person care about the feelings of another while lacking feelings of his own? Most people would say altruism is good, selfishness is bad. I just see nature.

I have heard many thankful callers in the call in shows. That is some pretty good evidence. As for reaching large numbers of people who are currently uninterested in philosophy, maybe we could all crowdfund more shows like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh_t2fFF3B0

I would say that what you are attempting to do in France is equivalent to walking up a river with a very strong current. I call it cultural momentum. Do you think you could reverse the flow of a river? That usually takes massive geological upheaval. In this case that would be equivalent to the economic collapse of France. You want to move to America? Why not Switzerland, Hong Kong or Singapore?

Disproportionate reproduction at the lower end of the socio-economic scale appears to be cancelling out any positive impact we can have.

Of course. That is called eisegesis, the interpretation of text that expresses the interpreters own ideas and biases. It is why religion splits off into so many branches. I would say that the solution to statism and religion is time. Government and religion will continue to prove themselves to be irrational and destructive. I think we would be very impressed by the human species if we were to come back in 50,000 years.

I remember arguing with a smart anarchist in youtube comments when I considered myself to be a socialist statist. I am now thankful that he did that for me.

It is possible but I don't see why I would forget that I did or why I would choose to live in a reality where mentally ill pilots crash planes into mountains.

The singularity as OP describes it seems inevitable to me. Many people do want to create a super intelligent A.I. All it would take is some clever programming. We might need a better understanding of how our own brains work first. I'm sure our species will do its best to keep it under control and have it work for our own benefit. It would be like having a much more powerful version of Nikola Tesla. It would understand all human knowledge, do it's own research and we would ask it to solve our problems. I would say we would have such A.I closer to 2245 as opposed to 2045. I also think it is inevitable that humans will transcend their own biology and decide to live in virtual worlds inside supercomputers.

"I got the results of the test back, I definitely have breast cancer" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tng4OluHqsk

I am aware of that but I'm talking about natural IQ. I've never seen any evidence that shows variation existing at birth. IQ is associated with parental social status and biological parental IQ. This suggests to me that IQ is mostly culture based. I would say that the bell curve just represents the variation in parenting skills. Exceptions would be conditions like down syndrome. Children with high IQ/great parents are likely to be more successful in life.

Are their examples of high IQ children who have absolutely horrible parents and teachers? Is there any evidence showing a wide range in natural biological IQ? How much can a human brain vary? When I see "high IQ" I read "great parents and teachers". This is the reason I agree with Stefan. Parenting skills are the closest thing we have to a silver bullet when it comes to improving the wellbeing of the species. If there is a wide range in natural IQ then maybe we could include genetic selection.

I agree, I think the environment is the major cause in most cases of "mental illness". If this is the case, would it still be reasonable to relieve these people of personal responsibility when they commit crimes?

Thanks for the correction, it is a relief to know that I misunderstood you. I am in complete agreement with you. Excellent point about the blonde stereotype. It demonstrates how physical attributes can be perceived as indicators of personality traits. It is natural for humans to generalise, it is rational in terms of brain power efficiency. My issue is that when it comes to human populations that efficiency comes at the cost of division and often conflict. I think the species would be far more unified if we could transcend the concept of race, along with religion and statism of course.

Marriage?