The Prime Directive

[Rusty Edge]

Why should we consider the survival of a cultural group per say?  Cool question. I have an answer, I'd like to ponder it some more.  Can I get back to you on that?

I guess I'd like to see cultures preserved for purposes of genetic diversity. But that's thinking like a farmer.

What's more important to me is preserving culture for it's merit. The culture of Iceland, in particular. Why? Because they have about the lowest murder rate in the world, and have been at peace for a 1,000 years , mostly. Maybe one is the result of the other. Regardless, I'd like that culture to persist until we understand why that is, and beyond that, even if we don't understand why, just to serve as an inspiration. But the internet is making the world smaller. Maybe if they play enough GTA, they'll be just like everybody else in a few generations.  But that should be their choice.

Just like it should be the choice of the Aussie Aboriginals to eat a traditional diet , or go modern and become diabetic. I'd wish for some cultures to be preserved, and others to go away, like the Pitcairn Islanders who seem to have developed a culture of sexually assaulting children.

But on the whole, I wouldn't try to play God with any of them. Not being God, I probably wouldn't be very good at it. So I'll just wish, and stay out of their way.

[Spacy]

I see nothing wrong with looking at a culture from the outside, making evaluative judgement, and then deciding to interfere.  Deciding that an action is evil, and then deciding to take action against it, isn't a bad thing (assuming you have good judgement to begin with and that the action really is evil). 

Just know up front that there will be unintended consequences, and that you are messing with peoples lives. 

[Geo]

Preservation (be it cultural or ecological) has a tendency to pick a certain point in the evolution and try to stagnate it at that point.
Things that stagnate have a tendency to whither and die.

[Elok]

But that should be their choice.

Question: by "their choice," do you mean the choice of the group collectively, or of every individual within it?  Those two possibilities are likely mutually exclusive.