Tradition as Adaptive Evidence

When you’re uncertain which values best support long‑run success, treat the survival of traditions as evidence of adaptive fitness and be cautious about dismantling them. Pursuing moral ideals that reduce group adaptiveness can select your values out of the future. — This reframes culture‑war reforms by imposing an evolutionary and demographic constraint—moral change must pass the survival test, not just the righteousness test.

Sources

Modernity in Ancient China

Vincent Li 2025.12.01 80% relevant

The article cites Han Fei’s explicit rejection of Confucian appeals to a golden past and his claim that ‘past and present have different customs,’ which directly maps to the existing idea that surviving traditions should be treated as evidence of adaptive fitness rather than as moral exemplars—Han Fei offers an ancient, proto‑empirical statement of that heuristic for governance.

Beware Moral Confidence

Robin Hanson 2025.10.10 100% relevant

Hanson’s claim: 'practices existing is more evidence that they are adaptive' and that ignoring adaptiveness means 'your descendants may just disappear.'