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[–] 33 points 2 months ago* (5 children)

Eugenics.

Humanity could legitimately be a super species with control of genetic information being able to eliminate hereditary diseases and select for maximum health and performance. The problem is human nature can, would, and will immediately co-opt such technology to amplify socioeconomic stratification and be racist.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    This is an odd one. Genetic testing of parents and embryos to eliminate serious hereditary disease and other similar issues is already a thing. You'll have to clarify what you mean when you say that Eugenics would be nice to have.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    I'm thinking more like the movie Gattaca. Like, direct health and virility markers can be selected for and/or engineered in to create the best possible humans. Because that basically is the final frontier of human evolution- we can only control our environment so much, and the last thing we have yet to control is our own building blocks.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    In theory we could be testing for genetic markers for everything: intelligence, strength, temperament, immune response, life expectency, disposition towards addiction or cancer or color blindness or depression, and breeding up the average. It's not at all clear how practical that would be even in a perfect world, where the lines of nature meet nurture and stuff like epigenetics has an impact, and there's no ethical way to pursue that.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    I actually think it'd go way deeper than McRacism and even "class," interestingly.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    Yeah, look at pugs and tell me humans are capable of the kind of careful long term deliberation needed to decide the genetic future of a species.

    And even that framing has too narrow a scope. Can't separate you from your microbiome, can't separate an organism from it's ecology. If you could somehow have a eugenics project free from prejudice (fat fucking chance), you run into the problem that a eugenics program would be an unrealistically complex and long term undertaking, prone to terrible mistakes even from the most well meaning practitioner.

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