Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The optimal age to freeze eggs is 19

lesswrong.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–145 of 145 posts

Re: The optimal age to freeze eggs is 19

#141

Post by vintermann »

like_any_other wrote: post #139
vintermann wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but should "societal optimal" be a concern for the individual? I think not. Government economists, maybe.

Rejecting any care or duty towards one's own society is a very modern, very extreme viewpoint. And I don't think it bodes well for societies where it prevails.

Just like every person dies, so does every society (no matter where you draw the lines around it). We can't justify what we do solely based on survival. What's worth doing has to be worth doing for its own sake, here and now. That we are around to do things in the future, doesn't matter if nothing is worth doing.

Put in a catchier way, if nothing is worth dying for, then nothing is worth living for either.

I think you'll find this is a very old viewpoint. As is the smear that we reject any care or duty for society. "This may seem harsh and stubborn and unconciliatory; but it is to treat with the utmost kindness and consideration the only spirit that can appreciate or deserves it."

Re: The optimal age to freeze eggs is 19

#142

Post by the_real_cher »

arjie wrote: post #14
the_real_cher wrote: post #9

It's wild that in the year 2026 modern science can't recreate a SINGLE cell (which is what a human egg/ovum is).

Well, that seems a bit reductive because nothing can create a single cell right now. All cells are self-copied-and-divided. Omnis cellula e cellula , as they say. There is no cell constructor anywhere. Both Nature and Artifice use the same device to make more cells: a previous cell.

Theres components though. And where theres components theres building blocks. And where theres building blocks engineering is possible.

Re: The optimal age to freeze eggs is 19

#143

Post by conductr »

1659447091 wrote: post #97
conductr wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have considered that as well but shared time with that person would have been more and I would be none the wiser to the actual timeline, so I feel it’s appropriate to treat them as the same “child” instead of theoretical kid vs actual kid and how I’m happy I waited because this kid is so cool, pretty sure I would have felt the same towards the other kid (who knows maybe not but even if he was a jerk of a kid I’d assu…

> ...but shared time with that person would have been more Sticking to the philosophical arguments, having the kid at any other time, even earlier would not guarantee more time with them. It would have drastically shifted your life events which could include ones that possibly shorten it.

Time and guarantees are oil and water, it’s without saying. I don’t even know if you’ve lived long enough to witness this message I’m writing. I’m writing it anyway.

Maybe he was born 10 years earlier and I die in a car crash on the way to the hospital. It’s possible of course I only am alive because I wasn’t on the way to the hospital. While I agree with you on a philosophical point, sure, the fact is I was the one actively choosing to not have kids yet and waiting for some later date. So, I was in much more control of the situation than this philosophical hypothetical or alternate timeline. So, having regret or sharing what I learned from choices I have made still seems like the best choice. I don’t live by thought exercises.

Re: The optimal age to freeze eggs is 19

#144

Post by prmoustache »

kleiba wrote: post #115
bdangubic wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same and feel the same (in addition to financial stability) but oh so often I wish I had my kid earlier in my life

I can relate to that -- perhaps it's a bit the feeling of "missing out", like, when your peers have the time (and energy ;-)) to do fun stuff that you just cannot do because of the kids. But I'm thinking that I had ample time to make experiences earlier in life, and even though I'm going to be close to retirement age by the time the last one of our children is going to leave the house, I still think it was fine the w…

I do think loneliness is a separate, unrelated problem.

Re: The optimal age to freeze eggs is 19

#145

Post by 1659447091 »

conductr wrote: post #143
1659447091 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...but shared time with that person would have been more Sticking to the philosophical arguments, having the kid at any other time, even earlier would not guarantee more time with them. It would have drastically shifted your life events which could include ones that possibly shorten it.

Time and guarantees are oil and water, it’s without saying. I don’t even know if you’ve lived long enough to witness this message I’m writing. I’m writing it anyway. Maybe he was born 10 years earlier and I die in a car crash on the way to the hospital. It’s possible of course I only am alive because I wasn’t on the way to the hospital. While I agree with you on a philosophical point, sure, the fact is I was the one…

> I don’t live by thought exercises.

But you live with regret and rumination and thinking up possible future scenarios; that and "living by thought exercises" are two sides of the same coin -- if not the same side. Which is what the argument was meant to playfully point out, in its round-a-bout philosophical way. You can get up to thinking of all the sci-fi timeline altering stuff of the past the same as you can carry regret from thought exercises directed toward future events, thus getting in your feels and self-berating.

It is all thought exercises. The other option is to release the burden of guilt and simply enjoy the timeline you have now. Kids sense these things that their parents carry. Anyway, in no way was I implying your experience or feelings or sharing is wrong or judged

Post reply on HN