Altruism (biology) Puns

Video: https://v.redd.it/kmmsih5x7d641

There are many studies and examples of this phenomena. And it indicates that we have an innate sense of morality and right and wrong encoded in our DNA.

This is why the Stoics talk about the universality of Virtue and being good.

It’s not just “a personal preference”. It’s the natural order of humans.

Every new year’s eve is a day of reflection and contemplation for me. It’s a day that I allow my thoughts to drift where they may. As 2021 came to a close, I landed on this question about altruism and whether or not it truly has ever existed. A few of you may know that I am a Cynicism “immigrant”. As such, I hold firm that all of mankind works from a selfish place. That all “unselfish” acts are “selfish” by default.

Which took my thoughts towards De and Ch 38. I’ve contemplated this passage heavily over the years and it still continues to ring so true. The thought being that a truly unselfish act is one where a person is unaware that it is unselfish. I mean, a sincere level of ignorance or an almost childlike innocent level of knowledge. Without question it would have to be true De.

Which brings me back to the original question regarding altruism and it’s existence in Daoism. I am leaning towards no. Altruism is something manufactured to label or to define a behavior. That label would be unlabeled in Daoism and the definition left undefined. That if one believes they are being altruistic or behaving in an altruistic way, they surely are not altruistic. Yet could altruism be observed by a third party and the act defined as such? How could a third party know the heart of the first party, however? That is the hang up with observation.

While I am still considering the thought, I am interested to hear your thoughts on the subject.

Hi everyone!

So I recently took the Giving What We Can pledge, donating 10% of my income to the most effective charities. I spoke to a friend of mine about, and he came with an argument I found it quite hard to respond to, so I was hoping you could share your thoughts on the matter.

Basically, he thinks that helping those most in need should be a responsibility of the government, and the more money we, as individuals, donate to charity, the less money the really big players, governments, will feel they have to donate. His argument then is, that if a lot of people donate money to charity, it would result in less government donations/spending, which would cancel out the effects of privately donating.

Can anyone find a hole in the argument, or any studies/statistics which support EA on this matter, or is he right?

Thank you!

Perhaps this is a dumb question but it's been gnawing at me for a while. Is there any potential for DAOs to step in and fill the gap where society has failed? For example, housing prices are ridiculously high. Can a DAO be set up to buy land and develop it with the intention of building reasonably sized houses, on reasonably sized plots, and distributing those homes, basically at cost, to token holders so that they can afford to own a home and actually live in it (not capitalize on it, not rent it out, etc.)? Does something like this already exist?

If this system were to become popular, would it crash the housing market?

Another example: Healthcare. Again, not exactly accessible to everyone because for-profit entities are involved. Can a DAO be set up to get a prototype for universal/single-payer healthcare going? If this became popular enough, could it put insurance companies out of business?

Is any of this within the realm of reality? Or is it just wishful thinking?

The Internet especially looses its mind every time it seems someone does something good and it's not entirely selfless.

Whatever your reasons, if you do good, you do good. Nobody here is a saint, if someone posts their good deeds seeking validation, I say let them. Put away your pitchforks and try do better before getting all high and mighty.

Thank you for reading.

So I just saw the social dilemma on Netflix. Although I know Netflix likes to dramatise a lot of things in documentaries I do believe there is a lot of truth in the topics covered in this particular documentary. The documentary is about how the AI behind social media platforms is essentially harming the society and health of its users for profit-maximisation/self-interest. Are the engineers that created these social media algorithms/AI to get us addicted to our screens also considered data scientists? If so, what are some examples of data science companies/projects that do not exploit others for individual-interest only. With my knowledge on data science jobs, the top-tier jobs are always at the big companies like Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon; people will say you have made it when you get into such a company.

I am actually looking to get into data science/AI after my current studies. However I am not excited to get a job at any of these big companies at all. I feel like I will just help them obtain/analyse even more data to exploit even more people/exploit people even more. What are some more altruistic jobs for a data scientist that still pays decently?

What is your opinion on this anyway?

I don't see (or do) much sneering at the Rationalism-adjacent Effective Altruism movement, because they at least seem to be doing something worthwhile. Apparently they are plenty sneerworthy though.

https://twitter.com/NathanpmYoung/status/1464688390620725259

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I came across this post on tik tok where this women was saying she just turned 20 and had no interest in a 15 year old.

In the comments, a man was defending his bros saying that it's the creators fault because 17-19 year olds are more fertile than 30 years old. I would first like to point out that all humans kind of have an instinct to pass on their genes but why are women never talked about. I don't actively seek out a partner cause they are more fertile. And if a women wanted a protector she will be called a gold digger.

Men are most fertile when they are 30-35. DOES THAT FRICKIN MEAN THAT NO MAN GOT MARRIED BEFORE THAT AGE OR AFTER THAT AGE (or had kids).

OR THAT A WOMEN ACTIVELY SEEKS OUT A 35 YEAR OLD TO MATE WITH HIM???? That logic makes no sense at all!!!

I am 18 and i wouldn;t go out with a 30 year old. When i'm 20, I still wouldn't go out with a 30 year old.

However, men can say that literally revealing how much of a pedo they are and nothing can be done. I got my period at 13, do i need to be worried a grown ass man wants to be with me. Idgaf about biology, do they not have a moral conscience. Things change, we go through evolution. We still are, we are constantly evolving. Women no longer need a protector, we are more aware of what is right and wrong but how can men still act like animals.

I'm tired of men. Safe to say I will not be reproducing cause this world is trash and most men just make me feel afraid and sick.

I graduate in May and just really need help on what type of jobs to apply to. Taking a few gap years before or if I even decide to do a masters. Im a mom to a toddler plus I’m not really close to a 3.0 GPA

EDIT: Just to add a bit more details im getting my BS in specifically Molecular Biology. I do live in Central Cali close to Bay Area. May be willing to take a bit of a drive in careers I’ve looked up that are about an hour drive.

BTW I really thank you guys for blowing this up! I’ve been looking at all the comments or trying to get to them. Giving me a lot more hope.

I am a 23 year old woman who was raised by my Mother and her husband who raised me since I was 4 years old after my Biological Father worked out on my Mother and me when I was a baby, he is my father in every way that matters and I wouldn't change him for anything.

A few months ago my Biological Father got in contact and wanted to meet, I allowed it and slowly started to get to know him, mostly because it turns out I have younger half-siblings and I didn't want to cut them off plus despite it all I wanted to try and understand the "why" behind him walking out and try to move beyond it. A couple of days ago though I realised the truth behind his reaching out, he revealed he needs a Kidney transplant and none of my half-siblings are a match, he wants me to be tested.

I was honestly hurt by this as he clearly only reached out to me as a last resort and saw me as nothing more than a back up to try and get an organ from, i've told him I wont get tested but he is trying to guilt me over his health and my younger half-siblings are begging me to get tested. AITA for saying no?

While it is good to bring BT to ensure the survival of the team. It really sucks that you're the only one in your team to have BT and get tunneled after your teammate unhook you in front of a killer.

BT would be better if the person bringing it would benefit from its effect.

"I should gain endurance because I have the BT."

Edit: I meant the hooked survivor should gain endurance if they have BT even if the unhooker doesn't have one 😅

Today I committed crimes against humanity for 10 matches in order to analyze and understand facecamping. I played leatherface with no add ons and no offering. My perks were blood warden, rancor, bbq, and franklins. I would find and down a survivor, hook them, and pretty much just stare until they either died or got saved. Only 2 or 3 times did I do anything intelligent around the hook, and I would pick up slugs to confirm kills occasionally.

Also for reference, I am a rank 1 killer on console and had a 6 game winstreak on leatherface prior to this experiment.

Here are the results along with small notes on notable events.

Game 1: 17k bp, 3 kills, 1 door, 3 bbq, Uncollected

Game 2: 15k bp, 3 kills, 1 hatch, 3 bbq, 3 ash, 1 iri

Game 3: 17k bp, 4 kills, 2 ash, 2 bronze (2 kobe)

Game 4: 14k bp, 4 kills, 1 bronze, 2 silver, 1 gold (1 hate message)

Game 5: 19k bp, 4 kills, 1 ash, bronze, gold, iri (Blood Warden) (1 hate message)

Game 6: 15k bp, 4 kills, 3 silver, 1 gold (All died going for first hook)

Game 7: 19k bp, 3 kills, 1 hatch, 4 bbq, 1 ash, 1 silver, 2 bronze (1 hate message)

Game 8: 12k bp, 3 kills, 1 door, 3 bbq, 1 gold, 3 iri (all gens done before first kill)

Game 9: 17k bp, 4 kills, 1 ash, 1 bronze, 2 iri (1 hate message)

Game 10: 8k bp, 2 kills, 2 door, 2 bbq, 1 ash, 1 bronze, 1 silver, 1 iri (2 messages, 1 hate)

In summary, survivors throw themselves at unsaveable hooks. Despite getting relatively few blood points, most games resulted in high kill counts.

I am very sorry to everyone I hurt in this experiment. On a few occasions I did give hatch to the last person, although those games where it was voluntary were still counted as 4ks.

My niece is 7, my daughter is 2 and very possessive. You know the saying "don't take candy from a baby"? This is pretty much the scenario.

We all waited in line for 45min for the local ice cream place and I got my daughter one cone, and my niece one cone. But how it worked out was I handed my niece her cone, walked around to the other side of the car, then handed my daughter hers. But between then, my niece gave hers to my daughter so my daughter would go first. I didn't notice until my daughter was double fisting.

The thing about my daughter is if I took an ice cream away, it would be an atomic meltdown. The kind of meltdown you just say "fuck it" and go home immediately instead of any other plans you had.

I told my niece that she shouldn't have given her the ice cream because if we're going to continue our day, she will need to have both; we don't have time to wait the entire line again. She understood at least as much as a 7 year old could. Visual disappointment but acceptance.

Was I the asshole? To compensate, on the way home, we stopped by McDonalds and got her a cone, but it's not the same. The ice cream place we went to is a common tourist destination and it's really good, at least much better than Micky D's.

Question pour le grand peuple de Montréal.

Mes enfants de 7 et 9 ans ont réalisé cette année que l'itinérance existe. Ça les à troublé bin gros de savoir que des gens ont pas de maison et ils veulent faire quelque chose de concret pour aider. Bon au début, ils voulaient qu'on en laisse 4-5 venir habiter chez nous. Ils ont finalement eu l'idée plus raisonnable de simplement leur offrir dequoi pour Noël. Une carte 100% faite par eux, avec un petit paquet "selfcare" genre. Ils ont déjà préparé leur dizaine de cartes de Noël et sortit de l'argent de leur petite banque pour aller acheter des trucs pour offrir avec les cartes et je me sentirais comme mal de les arrêter dans leur élan d'altruisme. Je ne fréquente pas vraiment Montréal sur une base régulière et je ne connais rien là-dedans, on les trouve ou les itinérants? Ils ont besoin de quoi concrètement selon vous? Ça serait mieux de se promener et leur donner directement ou bien de trouver un organisme qui distribuera tout ça?

Je me relis pi j'ai dis Montréal mais ça peut être ailleurs sur la rive-sud aussi 🤷‍♀️

Un gros merci!

I'm hoping to start an effective altruism group at UW and I just want to know if anyone at UW knows what it is/would be interested in it.

If you're familiar with EA, please let me know!

If you're not familiar with EA, it's an organization that aims to find the most effective ways to do good. Many other universities have EA groups, with particularly strong programs at Berkeley, Stanford, and Cambridge. We will be discussing issues that affect millions if not billions of people. Issues like emerging technologies, global income inequality, climate change, nuclear war, pandemics, and more. We will also be discussing career goals and helping each other shape those goals, again, in order to have the biggest impact for your effort.

One key idea of EA is that some methods of accomplishing a goal are hundreds of times more effective than others. If your goal is to improve access to education, for example, it turns out that providing traditional educational resources like books and smaller class sizes have almost no effect on test scores, while providing medical resources to children in the poorest parts of the world is tremendously impactful. By paying $1 for medication to treat common parasitic worms, you can enable a child to attend an additional 2 weeks of school every year!

Let me know if you're interested!

Me (34M) and my husband (47M) have two children (a girl and a boy, both 5 years old) via surrogacy, my husband was the sperm donor. If you haven’t noticed, we are a gay couple. My MIL wasn’t never my biggest fan, I don’t know the reasons but I can only assume that it has something to do with my decisions and my lifestyle, there was a time where she thought that I was taking advantage of her son and his money. My husband is older than me, for that reason she assumed that I was taking advantage of him or trying to. Obviously this was never true and I think I have proved myself the last 7 years.

My MIL is a fan of children, she basically harasses her kids to have a baby if they’re not parents, and if they already have babies she demands more, my husband wasn’t the exception even if he’s gay. We always wanted to have children because both of us are naturally family oriented men, and we’re planning to have more. I love my family and I love my husband but MIL makes me feel inadequate. She makes constant remarks about how my children are not biologically mine, at first I didn’t care because she’s right but I’m getting very annoyed lately. We were celebrating our kids birthday, a MIL’s friend (I don’t know who invited her) told me that my babies are beautiful (which I’m proud of) and she told me that my son acts exactly like me and I laughed because it’s true, and MIL told her “It’s learned behavior because they are not his biological children” when she thought I wasn’t listening, I ignored this because she is right.

Both me and my husband work and sometimes MIL take care of the babies, one day I came to pick them up and I listened to my MIL telling my daughter to tell “daddy” about something (nothing important) and my daughter came to me and told me what MIL asked her to, and MIL said “No, not him. Your daddy”, my kids call me daddy and my husband “papa”. I felt attacked because she doesn’t see me as the father, she see me as a caregiver and not important so I told her that I’m literally “daddy”, I’m literally the father, not the caregiver, not a nobody. I asked her to stop treating me as the caregiver because I’m the real dad too. She immediately apologized and told me that I overreacted. Did I? AITA?

With the premiere of Book of Boba Fett, we have been treated to no less the four new Twi'Lek characters. Unfortunately, these new characters have thrown an even greater wrench into the matter of Twi'Lek ears.

The problems all began with ROTJ, with the very first appearance of the Twi'Lek species - [Oola] (https://imgur.com/Bj2vTYL), and [Bib Fortuna] (https://imgur.com/kXCiTHa). Bib has somewhat deformed, but still recognizably human ears. Oola, on the other hand, has a pair of white cones attached to her headress, that cover her presumably human ears. However, by the time of the prequel era, these cones transitioned from being decorative elements to her actual ears.

Aayla Secura features smaller, skin tone colored cones instead of ears. This pattern continued throughout the Clone Wars and Rebels eras, with female characters like Hera Syndulla and Numa having cones, while males like Cham Syndulla and Gobi having humanoid ears.

There was of course one major exception to this - Orn Free Taa. The Clone Wars series made a few changes to the prequel Twi'Leks. [Chi Eekway] (https://imgur.com/a/F3Wyggd), originally a Twi'Lek, was retconed into a Pantoran. Taa, initially an unnamed species, was turned into the Twi'Lek Senator for Ryloth. Taa of course feature biology not seen on any other member of the species. He has humanoid ears, like the other males, but also four Lekku, and only four fingers per hand.

Aside from Taa, Twi'Leks remained relatively consistent until the Disney Era films. [Beezer] (https://imgur.com/a/CfLu7mF), the first live-action Twi'Lek since ROTS, follows the pattern set by Bib with humanoid, albeit deformed ears. It is not until Solo, when a [pair of Twi'Leks] (https://imgur.com/a/jccdW2z) on Dryden's Yacht appear. A male and female, both with cones. The visual dictionary confirm ls that male is merely wearing 'faux cones' as a fashion element.

The Mandalorian introduces two more Twi'Lek characters: Xi'an, and her brother Quinn. Both clearly do not have ear cones, with their headresses being completely flat over the ears. The Book of Boba Fett introduces several new characters, including the [Majordomo] (https://imgur.com/a/XB7rKWB), a male who noticeably lack ears cones, but another male who clearly has them. All the females in the series so far seem to also have ear cones.

There are several other differences as w

I see people write that morality is subjective because different people think that different things are right over time, but thinking that something is right does not make it so. I believe that the entire concept of morality is the attempt to grasp at something real and preexisting. This biological religion is empathy and altruism, it's listening and compassionate, it's cooperation, it's enabling the potential of our neighbors and listening to the voices of our ancestors, it's acting with enlightened self interest.

It's true that ideal goodness might be distorted by time but that doesn't mean that the word has no meaning, or that we shouldn't still try. Whether you rape someone for pleasure or work to get a medical degree in order to heal broken bodies, one of these actions can be said to be better than the other. Its a matter of risk assesment. But the primary difference is what respect an action holds for the autonomy of others. That some actions have grey areas where you will be unsure of outcomes, shooting a criminal in the midst of a violent act for example, doesn't mean that morality is meaningless.

So to call something good or evil, it must be an action we ourselves take and we must consider other people. Whether our actions will help them or harm them. If it will do both, then it may be that the action is both good and evil for the results it manifested. But we still know the difference and it's our responsibility to work towards the good, often by inaction, by not exerting tyrannical will on others in the name of goodness.

Being ethical is difficult, it is learned, it requires self reflection, listening and careful consideration. That doesn't mean it's meaningless.

I think people have objective value because they are the source of value. Just as a tree cannot stand without it's trunk, values are dependent on people. Thats why the golden rule is to love others as you love yourself. Thats why the foundation of Law is impartial justice. That's why the Hippocratic oath says "first, do no harm". It's why slavery, murder and rape are nearly universally held as evil, or at least they are now because empathy is something we learn. That's why current modern western culture values consent so highly. People REALLY don't like being treated as if they aren't conscious.

>"Would you have me argue that man is entitled to Liberty? That he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it." Frederick Douglass on Liberty slavery and the 4th

My hands are shaking as I type this, but not for the usual reason. This time it’s from nervous energy. I have a few minutes before my family arrives at the airport, so this might be my last message - one sent from the cell phone waiting lot. No electronics will work where we are going, so I’m biding my time between listening to the radio and dreaming of what’s to come. There’s a lot of holiday music on the air, which is nice. Makes me feel nostalgic for a time that may never have existed, but that doesn’t matter now. I’m about to have all of my wildest dreams come true, just as soon as I hold up my end of the bargain.

 

The agreement was struck in a coffee shop of all places, and there was no contract, least of all one signed in blood. I met him on a rainy Tuesday a few months back, as the summer faded and the first notes of autumn were strum. There was nothing special or ominous about the day. The barista took my order, I got my coffee (name spelled correctly on the cup), and I wandered around the cafe until I saw the man wearing the Hawaiian shirt and blue jeans, just as he told me he’d be dressed in our anonymous chats.

 

He said his name was Jacob, but he asked me to call him Jake. I figured it was a fake name, though he did show me his passport as a gesture of good faith. If it was fraudulent, it was a work of art. I responded in kind, confident that if this was some silly fantasy, he wouldn’t be able to do much with the knowledge of my real name. Maybe he could try to embarrass me, but he couldn’t know I was already about as low as a man could get. I took a seat across from him, and I slid my facemask off before neatly folding and placing it into my shirt pocket.

 

Earlier, I woke abruptly around three in the morning with a throbbing headache and absolutely killer heartburn. I stared off into the dim void of my hotel room while I sucked on half a dozen antacid tablets, my scattered thoughts returning to what would happen at this meeting, whether the mystery man was legit, and why I was willing to take a chance on meeting somebody who said he had the inside scoop on something that should not exist. I checked my phone, hoping for some news from home, but the family held firm in keeping me at a distance. Time to heal, they said. And now, at the moment of truth, I was looking at a middle-aged white guy who didn’t exactly seem to be living the high life, one who surely did not know the mysteries of the un

That’s it, merry Christmas :)

Edit: for all the people that actually got mad… why tho? It’s just a dumb post lmao just like.. be normal and ignore it then? Stop giving it attention it’s simple.

But for all the other people, y’all pretty chill ngl

Do you want to make the world a better place?

Do you want to think carefully about how to have the biggest impact you can?

Do you want to meet like-minded students and learn more about how you can do good with your career, donations, and activism?

Then the Effective Altruism Fellowship is perfect for you! The fellowship is an 8-week program involving weekly readings and discussion groups (in-person or virtual) on how to have a positive impact. You’ll also learn a framework for career planning to optimize your time, resources, and social impact. Lastly, you’ll get the chance to network with professionals and other EA fellows worldwide from other top universities.

Topics covered in the program: measuring and estimating impact, high-impact careers, global health and poverty, intensive animal farming, longtermism, and global catastrophic risks.

In its discussion of high-impact careers, the fellowship will reference the work conducted by 80,000 Hours to identify the most pressing global problems. The top problems include safely guiding the development of AI, global priorities research, reducing the risk of catastrophic pandemics, nuclear security, improving institutional decision making, and extreme climate change.

The fellowship is open to all members of the Georgia Tech community! The program will start on February 6th, and applications are due on January 23rd.

Let us know if you’re interested here: https://airtable.com/shrQp4aiBQlLTNBtS!

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Why don't we feel it this year?

We are all desperately unhappy with the situation we are being forced into. The strength of the energy is absolutely undeniable.

No more sitting around letting them ass**** us! I'm tired. You're tired. We're missing Christmas because of it.

Things are changing in our favour, as more of us wake up to the sadistic dystopia our lives are! The fact is, we are much to busy to celebrate Christmas, to fuel their economic machine that pumps out endless dollars on their end.

We have the power to take control and create a balanced, altruistic society. So please, share this subreddit with friends, tell family about the issues and raise awareness. They already know what we do, they just haven't realised it yet.

Edit: I was upset and got a little violent in a paragraph. I've removed it now that the red mist has dissipated. Sorry.