How very soviet of him
I agree that it's pretty cringe to refer to all of them as his children when he's literally a sperm donor, but he definitely did call them that.
Many people with uninvolved biological fathers would disagree with you that the guy who impregnated their mother counted as their father, especially if they were raised by another man who actually did stick around, and that's even for dads who actually impregnated the mother. Sperm donation takes this even further because he claims to have actually done it anonymously [0], meaning he's as uninvolved as he possibly could have been in the process of being a father.
Many or most of these kids have real men who were actually there helping to raise them through their childhood who they refer to as "father", and it's pretty disrespectful of Durov towards those men to attempt to usurp that title on the grounds of what was supposed to be an anonymous donation.
I'll grant that Durov is more likely than most sperm donors to have some of these kids actually claim him as their father, but that's in no small part because there's now a substantial amount of money tied to them identifying him as such. Cynically I wonder if that's a major motivator for him doing this, because he knows that the kids wouldn't otherwise know or care who he is.
> fifteen years ago, a friend asked him to donate sperm at a clinic to help them because they were having trouble conceiving.. "The boss of the clinic told me that ‘high quality donor material’ was in short supply and that it was my civic duty to donate more sperm to anonymously help more couples.. I plan to open-source my DNA so that my biological children can find each other more easily.. The shortage of healthy sperm has become an increasingly serious issue worldwide, and I’m proud that I did my part to help alleviate it."
He better makes all 100 aware of each other for a much simpler reason: incest prevention. Even though the chance being slim, it is possible.
A dutch man was sentenced to not donate any more sperm because one company illegally used his to fertilize dozens of eggs resultingin statistically problematic number of children from one individual.
So listen techbros, this is not how you "safe" humanity.
Eminem hinted at the answer. During the peak of his fame he was at a restaurant with his crew and having a great time and he was making jokes and everyone was laughing and then in a flash of clarity he realised:
> of course they're laughing, every single one of these people are on my payroll.
Riches have an incredibly distorting effect, especially once you cross the threshold of becoming a target. At that point you _need_ security, you _need_ to move to a gated community and you can no longer lead a normal life. The only other people you can meet who aren't trying to get into your wallet are other rich people and they're as insane as you are. You also have "fuck you" money so being nice, having other people like you isn't necessary any more. You no longer have a limiter. It gives people the opportunity to be more monstrous and I worry that much monstrosity lies dormant within us all, simply waiting for its opportunity.
IMHO Hoardcurse only has two cures: put yourself at risk by forcing yourself to interact with normal people who don't owe you anything and don't know how rich you are, or give-away/spend your assets and become normally poor again, which ofc nobody ever does.
Based on my framework that means the moral tragedy occurred long before the wealth and fame.
So, true wealth removes the limiters and the consequences that might keep some people in check. It's like how, for all the horrors that religion foisted upon us over the centuries, one of the good things it did was to encourage a general populace to attempt to better people using the threat of hell and encouraging an acknowledgement of sin.
I wish someone gave me $100MM, that'd be great, even if I didn't know them.
I believe he doesn't even spend time with them at all, or even know their names
It's not very typical for a sperm donor to be involved, or even be aware of, the kids born from the donation.
miga•3h ago
Onawa•2h ago
walterbell•2h ago
myth_drannon•1h ago
wood_spirit•1h ago
Then, all who can match that they are his children can claim.
Balgair•4m ago
From what I can tell (which isn't much) Durov is living in France and seems to like it there. I'm not going to assume the people that are a product of his sperm donations are all living in France, but I will assume some are.
In France paternity tests are legal, but they are highly regulated and require a court order to preform at a very small number of labs that can do it. This goes back to 1994. Even going outside that system and gaining a paternity test in another country is illegal and risks a year in prison and a 15,000 Euro fine. Not that it stops questioning husbands, but hey.