Comment by sdhfjg

5 years ago

Eugenics has obvious issues when applied to mature individuals or groups, but I'll need convincing that the same moral position is warranted if we're talking about cells.

23 comments

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NaNDude  5 years ago

science fiction reference for cells eugenics: gattaca https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca

  • delecti  5 years ago

    I always felt like Gattaca was unrealistically pessimistic. I'm unconvinced that the "best possible person" (if you grant such a thing even exists) is that much different from an average person.

    It seems more likely that we would just eliminate some genetic diseases and cancers, and vain/rich parents would select for taller children. Most other differences seem to be too weakly correlated with genes we've identified to result in such a stark change to society. It's less like taking a bunch of dials tuned to 5 and turning then all up to 11, and more like increasing some dials from 5 to 6, and arbitrarily spinning some others because they weren't labeled to begin with.

    • thereisnospork  5 years ago

      > I always felt like Gattaca was unrealistically pessimistic. I'm unconvinced that the "best possible person" (if you grant such a thing even exists) is that much different from an average person.

      To simplify the scenario to a single dimension, imagine how much different the NBA would look like if there were 10,000 Lebron James's and Shaq's being born every year. I'd expect it will take a few generations for sufficient predictive confidence to develop though.

      2 replies →

    • anonporridge  5 years ago

      > I'm unconvinced that the "best possible person" (if you grant such a thing even exists) is that much different from an average person.

      This seems like an absurd thing to believe for anyone who has a solid grasp of how evolution by natural selection works.

      Or rather, it's absurd to believe that even a small improvement from the average isn't a HUGE advantage for a person's success in life and genetic legacy.

      11 replies →

    • rackjack  5 years ago

      There is a genetic mutation that allows a person to function normally on just 4 hours of sleep. A person who needs 8 hours of sleep in this world would probably always be behind the rest.

    • rowanG077  5 years ago

      Considering that the gap between currently existing "best people" and the average is already really really immense I have the opposite opinion as you.

    • kfprt  5 years ago

      > Most other differences seem to be too weakly correlated with genes we've identified to result in such a stark change to society.

      These findings were always driven more by politics than science.

danuker  5 years ago

> We want to help parents have kids when it otherwise wouldn’t be possible.

Sounds to me like those eggs are bound to become mature individuals.