Nobody cares about passing on their genes
No creature gives a damn about passing on their genes. Except for humans, no creature is even the slightest bit aware that it's passing on its own characteristics to its offspring. Science education drums incessantly the dogma that each creature is consumed with its entire willful passion to pass on its genes. But there is absolutely no passion for it anywhere. Genes are passed on, of course, but the motor behind it is the entire scope of nature staying in balance, and not the selfish individual organism.
You can watch animals play out their reproductive cycles. Birds build nests in the spring. Nobody has ever taught these birds how to build their nests, but they nonetheless do it. And the reason why they are able to do it is that the totality of nature is so complex that an individual bird's response to it is to perform the actions required to build a nest. No intellect is required.
Even us humans, long aware of the inheritableness of traits and recently aware of genetics, don't care one bit about passing on our genes. Yes, we want to have babies, and we tend to think that if the babies are similar to us they will be more amenable to our values, but, obviously, unless you are a king concerned with legitimacy of lineage, passing on your genes is not the motivation for having babies. People adopt children, and they love their adopted children just as much, because the children are just as much their responsibility.
If you're still not convinced, consider that there is, hypothetically and perhaps now practically, a way to pass on all of your genes. The way to do that is to be cloned. Would you want to be cloned? No? I thought so. If a clone of me appeared, I'd frankly be motivated to kill it. But to make a creature that's a combination of me and someone I love -- now, that's a beautiful thought. But it's a beautiful thought because I love the person who's cooperating with me, not because I'm passing on my genes.
Really, we humans, although we might like to think otherwise, are just as captive to the balancing power of nature as any animal or plant. The drives that make us want to mate with someone are provoked by our response to the totality of nature.
You can watch animals play out their reproductive cycles. Birds build nests in the spring. Nobody has ever taught these birds how to build their nests, but they nonetheless do it. And the reason why they are able to do it is that the totality of nature is so complex that an individual bird's response to it is to perform the actions required to build a nest. No intellect is required.
Even us humans, long aware of the inheritableness of traits and recently aware of genetics, don't care one bit about passing on our genes. Yes, we want to have babies, and we tend to think that if the babies are similar to us they will be more amenable to our values, but, obviously, unless you are a king concerned with legitimacy of lineage, passing on your genes is not the motivation for having babies. People adopt children, and they love their adopted children just as much, because the children are just as much their responsibility.
If you're still not convinced, consider that there is, hypothetically and perhaps now practically, a way to pass on all of your genes. The way to do that is to be cloned. Would you want to be cloned? No? I thought so. If a clone of me appeared, I'd frankly be motivated to kill it. But to make a creature that's a combination of me and someone I love -- now, that's a beautiful thought. But it's a beautiful thought because I love the person who's cooperating with me, not because I'm passing on my genes.
Really, we humans, although we might like to think otherwise, are just as captive to the balancing power of nature as any animal or plant. The drives that make us want to mate with someone are provoked by our response to the totality of nature.
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