[throwaway0xb]

The other day I was listening to a podcast with Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, two people that annoy me to no end, but I'm a glutton for punishment. In the podcast they made the point that if a man were to pursue his true biological imperative in modern society, he would just get paid to donate sperm all day at a sperm bank. That was a joke obviously but it speaks to a kind of simple, outcome-oriented way of looking at who we are. But the truth is we did not evolve to procreate, we evolved to have sex. The distinction is subtle, but it's there. We are amazing creatures but our DNA doesn't encode the big picture, it only encodes enough for us to make another link in the chain.

I think it's ok to step back and admire the big picture, but I don't think we are equipped to live in a way where we find agreement with the big picture.