Why am I only getting 2 karma for 50 kittens?

The calculation in the game is as follows:

You have 50 kittens, this results in 15 karma kittens (an internal calculation value). We then take the square root of 1 plus 8 times karma kittens divided by 5, subtract 1 and divide by 2.

So:

  1. sqrt( 1 + 8 * 15 / 5 ) = 5
  2. 5 - 1 = 4
  3. 4 / 2 = 2

Thus, you get 2 karma points.

The algorithm is explained in the Kittens Game Wiki page about karma.