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I think that is remarkably unlikely. You don't see a concerned propaganda effort to stop men going to the gym, which is, at least in part, a Red Queen's Race too. Sure, more muscle mass is good for your health, all else being equal, but if you're a gym-freak, you're comparing yourself to other gym-freaks. I concede that there's a point if we consider people using dangerously high doses of anabolic steroids or other PEDs, but then again, the people who do them to that degree are actively making themselves uglier. Women don't demand six packs, and they mostly tend to shy away from roided out monstrosities. Decreasing marginal returns kick in surprisingly quick, and you can end up with outright negative returns, all while reducing your lifespan.
I am glad you clarified this, because the instincts you mentioned make me want to bash my head against a wall. Mostly from a transhumanist perspective, I take that seriously.
Just to clarify it's complete arm chair philosophising I don't have anything to cite.
It's not fully rational, i think the origin of this feeling from an evolutionary sense was to prevent a race to the bottom but evolution is very dumb and doesn't intellectually understand what a red queen race is. So people get a vague sense of intuition about what things are and are not race to bottom and hence dishonorable.
As a society trading time for health and looks is accepted. Trading slight chance of bad health for looks is not accepted.
Using steroids so they harm your health is also not accepted.
Doing things in general just for signalling is disliked everywhere. Such as reading books just to get girls.
Trading time in general for things is very accepted.
Plastic surgery falls in both signalling and a race to the bottom.
Edit: Actually fashion gets a pass so race to the bottom is better. Plastic surgery doesn't count as signalling.
I don't have any advice about these things one way or other, though if someone came to me and asked me about plastic surgery, i would recommend them not to do it because I have a bias for recommending against something when I am not sure.
Still in truth I am completely neutral to the issue and have no opinion.
Now if it was something which could extend your biological life, you can bet I would fully support it. I am very much in transhumanist camp for living forever, even if you live as a brain in a jar. Don't believe in substrate independence so don't support living in a computer.
Hmm. I think you're still underestimating how dumb evolution is. It is remarkably bad at preventing Red Queen races. In fact, I'd be so bold to say that most of what evolution had done is a Red Queen race. The textbook examples come from biology!
Peacocks and their inconvenient, oversized, flamboyant tails. Immune systems and the pathogens that try to get around them. Predators getting faster to catch their prey, and the prey getting quicker so as to not get eaten.
I don't see it being applicable to humans. At best, you can make a case for cultural evolution, which operates on much tighter timescales. The problem with that approach is that I can still point to countries like South Korea or China, where plastic surgery is far more common, almost expected even. The latter country has 1.3 billion people, so if this is a popularity contest, it's the West that's being weird about things.
Fair enough. If someone else wants to live forever too, I'm content to live and let live. I hope you find a comfy jar.
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Being physically fit has value beyond just being higher on the relative scale of attractiveness. Facial shape doesn't appear to have it.
Ahem:
Anyway, the point isn't whether a given procedure or intervention brings only relative or absolute good to the person or wider society, it's that there's selective ignorance and cultural blindspots around some parts of it, including advice that would improve things in a non-rivalrous manner. Especially fertility oriented topics.
I could muster a defense of plastic surgery from the perspective of wider society, but my heart isn't in it, and I'm busy frantically working on a competitive submission. As a terrible existence proof: I'm sure the old grannies I meet while they're delirious would love to meet a handsome young psychiatrist. Right now, if they go that far, I have to question their reality orientation against my better judgement.
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