00:00:15.660I'm excited to be speaking with you today because we are going to be talking about whether people should voluntarily remove themselves from the gene pool.
00:00:25.300like to become a parent but with someone else's genes even though they could reproduce on their
00:00:33.120own like they don't have fertility problems because while we have friends who are very
00:00:37.260consciously and intentionally choosing to not reproduce genetically for fear of passing on
00:00:42.680like serious and genuine problems they have we also personally feel as we've discussed on various
00:00:47.940podcasts like it would be child abuse for people like us to raise kids who are not genetically
00:00:52.220ours just because we're so genetically weird and we know how to raise ourselves but no one else
00:00:59.880really would and we wouldn't really be great for raising other people a friend of ours guy named
00:01:04.200maddie who has a own weird following online who wanted to become a father and he was very dedicated
00:01:10.980to this he's done a few like podcast interviews on it and stuff wanted to become a father but very
00:01:16.760explicitly using somebody else's genes uh somebody who was like a nobel prize winner or something
00:01:23.520like that right like i thought it was maybe going to be multiple other people yeah multiple other
00:01:27.880men who were extremely successful in their fields more so than he was right and at the time i found
00:01:34.960this just bizarre i was like why would you cuck yourself like that right and i i now understand
00:01:42.960it a bit better. If you think that another man is strictly better than you, why not choose those
00:01:49.340genes? Now, at the end of the day, I think this is a bad cultural strategy to use more broadly
00:01:54.160speaking, because eventually the selfish genes that don't end up wanting to do this just end
00:02:01.520up dominating the gene pool. You know, if it's always the father's choice, now there's a strong
00:02:05.840selective pressure for people to get really disgusted by the idea of raising the child of
00:02:10.500another person for that intrinsic feeling to win out in any culture that allows this other choice
00:02:15.560and i note here a culture that did actually allow this historically for people who don't know are
00:02:20.000the spartans in spartan culture you would if you felt another guy was just strictly better than you
00:02:28.380like a better warrior a better guy you would have your wife sleep with him so that you could raise
00:02:33.020kids that were stronger than you right like because that's what your status came from is
00:02:37.420the strengths of your kids. Yeah, absolutely. Although I think another reason why we're more
00:02:43.280moderated in that view of like, well, there's things about me that are not perfect is now
00:02:49.400we're in the first generation of people who can select for and against traits, even complex traits
00:02:57.420using polygenic risk score analysis. And we're probably within five to 10 years of even being
00:03:04.400able to identify traits and then change them within your own embryos. I also think there's
00:03:11.380a second pathway here that's going to be more relevant to a lot of our audience is, is it
00:03:16.200virtuous for the men who were simply not able to secure a partner or the women who were not able
00:03:24.160to secure a partner that they wanted to breed with and spend their lives with? Can you still
00:03:28.740live an ethical life in the age of declining fertility rates? I mean, dating markets are
00:03:33.240really broken. If you are an undesirable man, can you still live a life of meaning without
00:03:39.140reproducing? And I'd argue very much so. If anything, you not being able to secure a partner
00:03:48.420might be one of the signs that you shouldn't have burdened your children with the challenges that
00:03:56.000you bore because of genetics that you didn't choose, by the way. Continue. Yeah. Yeah.
00:04:03.100I mean, it is. And that's why I wanted to have this conversation, too, is that is that's a real
00:04:07.260question. And it was brought up on X and discussed at length just yesterday on March 23rd. This
00:04:16.340economic student named Nicholas Decker wrote that he would use if he did have children, he would have
00:04:24.900someone else provide the sperm for his child and not him and his tweet read basically when i have
00:04:33.500children i do not want them to be genetically mine instead i will have someone better than me
00:04:38.960be the sperm donor my reasoning here and immediately critics mocked it as either
00:04:46.260neo-eugenics or cuckoldry i'm gonna yeah i'm gonna go through a sub stack article i'm gonna
00:04:51.000not read it in its completion but i'm going to summarize and use key quotes i'm also going to
00:04:55.420read some of the refutations and i kind of like to go through because i think he makes a lot of
00:04:59.760really salient points and and more much more nuanced than what i've heard anyone else discuss
00:05:04.380yeah and and i'll point out here people are like well so do you literally think that you have the
00:05:08.940best genes on earth malcolm that you couldn't find a single male with better genes than you
00:05:18.040and my answer is well i mean yeah i do i i actually do he does yeah i didn't i didn't
00:05:27.640want to have kids with anyone and then i met you and i was like huh i i'm gonna go for this
00:05:32.240i could find a better like and somebody could be like malcolm how could you i'm like well you know
00:05:37.800I've got you know degrees have you seen me the hardest to get into institutions I've done a lot
00:05:44.440in terms of business philosophy in multiple fields I've created successful things I am
00:05:50.160happy and mentally healthy for what I want to be like why wouldn't I want to replicate that like
00:05:55.280I wouldn't even trade my life with somebody like Elon's because you know like there's nobody nobody
00:05:59.980I do this with someone nobody on earth I trade my life with that I think has a better life than
00:06:04.540i've been able to build for myself even though you know i can still hopefully turn reality
00:06:09.160fabricator into an income source doing bc outreach and stuff like that right now but yeah anyway
00:06:14.360continue yeah so here is his substack article it's called why my children will not be mine
00:06:22.000and he published it on his substack homo economicus which has over 6k subscribers and this is you know
00:06:28.240this is a uni student you know he's doing well he's clearly smart that's really good yeah so i
00:06:34.340just I want to be clear from the start like this is not some anon faceless basement dwelling
00:06:40.600unemployed neat incel who's miserable and depressed like this is someone who you know
00:06:47.380is in school on their way up young precocious and thoughtful enough to gain a following on
00:06:53.880sub stack okay so here we go he wrote I would like to have kids I'm quite set on this I feel
00:07:00.240that I would be very happy raising them. I think I would find joy and purpose in helping them grow
00:07:05.000and learn to do great things. I'm filled with great yearning that is not entirely in my control.
00:07:11.620The same yearning which I imagine must affect the salmon as they travel upriver or the goose who
00:07:17.880flies south for the winter. I also have a sense in which it is my duty to procreate. The world
00:07:22.420becomes richer as more people are in it, and having more children would therefore make the
00:07:27.300world better there is one thing though they will not be genetically mine it's such a great opening
00:07:32.580because you're like okay wow he just sounds like your classic expansionist pronatalist like
00:07:36.940understands the assignment person and then he's like but by the way i'm not myself genetically
00:07:43.260reproducing he says this does not mean that i would adopt rather i would have someone else who
00:07:49.120i consider to be genetically better than me be the father of the child i have thought about this a
00:07:54.080great deal. And not only do I think it is the right thing to do, but it is something which
00:07:59.300everyone should do. Here's why, which is, I'm glad he's making this, this claim. I'm like,
00:08:06.060everyone needs to do this. Everyone needs to do this. It's a bold claim. And I like, I like it.
00:08:11.160I like this. I like this guy. So here more or less summarized were his points. He wrote to start,
00:08:18.260I think we can agree that it is bad to harm your children. And I agree. And I think this is one of
00:08:23.800the most basic and simple points that you get, you know, when people choose to not have kids,
00:08:27.000you brought this on a lot. A lot of people suffer from very severe depression or other mental
00:08:31.100illnesses, and they would never want to inflict that suffering on their children. And it really
00:08:35.280is kind of a form of abuse to, you know, have a child that you know is going to suffer immensely
00:08:41.500like that. I mean, like, there are perfectly fine children whose parents, like, you know,
00:08:46.280beat them or whatever, you know, is subject them to horrible experiences. And that sucks. And then
00:08:51.520there are parents who give everything to their children and their children are still more
00:08:54.800miserable than those like beaten children or deprived to children because they've just been
00:08:59.640born with the card stacked against them so much mentally from a suffering standpoint. So, okay,
00:09:04.980good point. But something you can address with apologetic risk or selection.
00:09:08.440Actually, this is, we see this in our kids already. I am a happy, exuberant, vitalistic
00:09:15.000person and it's very clear in our kids that they are the same way and i am that way in a way
00:09:22.120children that there's literally such a thing as euphoric screaming like just
00:09:26.960especially the euphoric screaming before the charge like these are like little pics like
00:09:34.700like what they've never heard that like we don't it's not like we've watched
00:09:45.000movies or anything that have this like euphoric battle cry in them i don't know where it just
00:09:49.940like comes it's just deep in their in their dunna but yeah if you are a person inclined to perceiving
00:09:58.040yourself negatively i can see why you might do this yeah he also writes we also know that genes
00:10:05.280matter they affect life outcomes a substantial part of the variation in people's outcomes is
00:10:10.420due to their genes. Okay. So he's setting the groundwork here. He wrote, if you would take
00:10:14.500actions, which you would definitely change your children's genes for the better, then you should
00:10:18.920also take them for actions, which changed them for the better in expectation. He basically sees
00:10:24.480choosing someone else's genes over yours as just an extension of something like gene editing.
00:10:29.220He wrote, they would still be your own children or else is an adopted child, not your own.
00:10:34.880if someone is left an orphan as a baby and then brought up by a family who loves them whose child
00:10:40.880are they would you love them less for not being your own or suppose you learn that the person
00:10:45.000you believe to be your son whom you raised was in fact conceived by another man would you cast
00:10:49.520that child out of your life i would hope yes yes i would you you have that very severe aversion
00:10:55.300i would hope you do not if you are unable to do this because you would only love your own children
00:11:01.040if they would be conceived by you then we would we would regard that as an unadmirable thing
00:11:07.180not right and normal which i mean i see i see his point that like you know you bring a person
00:11:14.720into your life you have a very close relationship with them you you raise them like in general i
00:11:19.920don't i don't think we would laud your reaction which you can't control as virtuous right it's
00:11:25.220just something you can't control he points out i think it's virtuous i think if a child isn't yours
00:11:31.060you should cast it out like i i would hold my kids to the same standards as well i think it is useful
00:11:37.300for a society to have this standard because it prevents parasitism yeah of the social group by
00:11:43.880outsiders yeah i mean that's that is absolutely true just just so people know how powerful this
00:11:49.200feeling is in malcolm we have a very controlled process whereby we create children we we undergo
00:11:56.380ivf the medical controls in place just because they don't want to be sued by ivf clinics to make
00:12:02.160sure that they don't mix up embryos or anything or eggs and sperm etc very rigorous malcolm still
00:12:07.880has our kids dna tested every day like a paternity test with every kid because it's like i don't know
00:12:14.120i don't know he needs to know i'm not gonna risk it but paternity testing you've i mean like i get
00:12:19.720it but it's it's still funny it's like i it's not even like could she possibly have slept with
00:12:24.940someone did they make a mistake in the lab it can happen no it can't and it it has happened so i also
00:12:30.320get that but anyway this is where when people are like oh like i think like ben shapiro did
00:12:34.780paternity tests and somebody was like oh like that shows he doesn't trust his wife it's like
00:12:39.000no like it's just a very some people some men just have extremely strong instincts here i think
00:12:44.900all men should have this in a cultural group the in equal i think all men should de facto
00:12:50.340always paternity test their kids yeah but nicholas decker just it's clear that some men don't have
00:12:55.160this instinct and that's i mean it just is but here's where it gets i think more interesting
00:13:02.820and these are arguments that i i wish more people would make when they think about these things
00:13:06.860He points out that just because one person is okay phenotypically, it doesn't mean their genes are optimal for certain desired outcomes.
00:13:14.960I mean, what I guess maybe he was saying is like, it doesn't mean their genes are good, but I just don't think that there's anything as good or bad genes.