When you are an oldcel like me, you start thinking about this a lot more than about mere pleasure or validation.
Immortality or posterity through children is an illusion, from every logical perspective. A child is not a clone of you, in a lot of cases he is very different, and in some cases he can actually become your worst enemy. Even if the transmission of your values succeeds with your own children, over the succession of generations, your genes are even more diluted away and the transmission of your cultural patterns is ever more likely to fail. Ultimately, there is no escaping the fact that we die and disappear as unique aggregates of information. What I wrote can be interpreted as edgy teenage nihilism, since it goes very much against established social norms, but I have yet to see a convincing retort to it. You just have to open a history book to see the long list of fallen dynasties and rebellious children.
On the other hand, there's no denying that the instinct to reproduce can be strong, and that it becomes stronger with age, probably as a result of some genetic programming that we rationalize. People who "suddenly" find they want a child while well in their thirties or forties are very common. They will usually deny the narcissism behind this wish, talking only about a generous wish to share life, to create life, but let's be honest here: if only generosity was involved, they'd do charity work, or adopt.
Basically, foregoing entirely the desire to make a copy of you may actually be impossible. Sometimes I find it unfair that all of my genetic peculiarities, including the good ones, will disappear just because of a few flaws, esthetic flaws at that. I then find solace in the idea that it happened to far greater men in the past, and that humans will get replaced sooner or later with superior synthetic lifeforms anyway.
Immortality or posterity through children is an illusion, from every logical perspective. A child is not a clone of you, in a lot of cases he is very different, and in some cases he can actually become your worst enemy. Even if the transmission of your values succeeds with your own children, over the succession of generations, your genes are even more diluted away and the transmission of your cultural patterns is ever more likely to fail. Ultimately, there is no escaping the fact that we die and disappear as unique aggregates of information. What I wrote can be interpreted as edgy teenage nihilism, since it goes very much against established social norms, but I have yet to see a convincing retort to it. You just have to open a history book to see the long list of fallen dynasties and rebellious children.
On the other hand, there's no denying that the instinct to reproduce can be strong, and that it becomes stronger with age, probably as a result of some genetic programming that we rationalize. People who "suddenly" find they want a child while well in their thirties or forties are very common. They will usually deny the narcissism behind this wish, talking only about a generous wish to share life, to create life, but let's be honest here: if only generosity was involved, they'd do charity work, or adopt.
Basically, foregoing entirely the desire to make a copy of you may actually be impossible. Sometimes I find it unfair that all of my genetic peculiarities, including the good ones, will disappear just because of a few flaws, esthetic flaws at that. I then find solace in the idea that it happened to far greater men in the past, and that humans will get replaced sooner or later with superior synthetic lifeforms anyway.
I feel quite good.
