[ExI] tech influence

[Anders Sandberg]

Tara Maya <tara at taramayastales.com> , 9/2/2014 4:23 AM:

On Feb 8, 2014, at 5:42 PM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:
Slim gym-rats with nouveaux cuisine tastes might be desirable and healthy, but they do not get much more kids. 
Being overweight and smoking are the two biggest "Turn Offs" to the dating crowd. For men or women. There is definitely a genetic penalty.
I started looking for evidence against that, but I found at least one paper supporting your view: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24223433 I could not get the paper, so no idea how big the effect is. However, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3291804/ points out that things may have changed over time and that social factors do mediate a lot of this - the image is slightly confusing. Generally, being overweight does seem to be a bit of a problem on the marriage market, http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199309303291406 (but see also http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199403033300920 ) In the end, my guess is that you are likely correct in our current culture, but the effect size might not be enormous. 
I also found a neat argument in http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2868879/ that childbearing might be a cause of obesity - no, not just in the obvious way! :-) - by an evolved factor of insulin resistance protecting the fetus from starvation. Oh, and obesity is a risk factor for lower fertility too.

Being drunk seems to be, as in previous centuries, no deterrent. If anything….
Impulsive actions does tend to lead to more kids. 
One interesting association is between tattoos and impulsivity. Which also seems to influence smoking: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24180254

In the end, there are a lot of moving parts in our society. Making predictions about the joint socio-psychological-demographic system is surprisingly tricky.

Anders Sandberg, Future of Humanity Institute Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University
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