/int/ - certified time wasters

It is said that we are adaptation executors, not fitness maximizers. That is, we have inherited the instincts that made our ancestors pass on their genes, but we don't value passing on our genes as such.

But it is also said in an internet meme: Why not both?

Humans value game achievements. For example, there is a game achievement in the Torchlight II game that counts how many breakable objects (vases, boxes etc.) the player destroys while dungeon-crawling. If you destroy enough, you have accomplished the game achievement and get a nice icon for it.

Other people are out there in the real world driving race cars in circles at fast speed or kicking balls into nets.

So why not also have human DNA as a game achievement? It may not be our one and only maximization imperative, but there is no reason why we cannot as a species also value how much of the human DNA molecule there is in the universe. After all, it is a part of our origin and our identity and it doesn't occur in nature outside of humans (although some other organisms share some of our genes, non-living matter doesn't even have those).

We could, as a civilization, aim at this game achievement in the same spirit and with the same motivation as we aim at other game achievements. And unlike a single-minded maximization imperative, it would be very compatible with very many other goals and values. The universe is filled with resources. Winning a reasonably sized human DNA fitness game achivement would require only a tiny fraction of them.

Such a goal would also give you, yes YOU, the person who reads this, more intrinsic value because you also have human DNA inside of you. (In addition to whatever other value you have.)

So consider treating human DNA fitness as a game achivement for our civilization to which you can contribute in some way or another!