[Icarus]

(07-08-2013 05:30 PM)Nemencine Wrote:  

My gut feeling is that we will never fully understand how genes work.

We don't have to care about genomes. We can focus on the phenotype instead, which is what eugenicists advocated some 100 years ago. Decide what physical / mental traits you want the population to have, and select for those traits. It may take 10,000 years, but that is imho a noble goal. Dogs did not evolve from wolves in a couple of days, either.

This does not need to compromise genetic diversity. The goal is to attain uniformity at the phenotype level, not at the genotype level.

Moreover, if one does want to preserve diversity, one could have a caste system. For example, one would breed a caste of men of great intelligence to do scientific research and technology; one would breed another caste of men of great athletic and leadership ability to serve as warriors / rulers. Inter-caste marriages would be discouraged, in order to preserve specialization. Plenty of diversity, but not total freedom to breed with whomever you want.

[Wutang]

(07-08-2013 10:21 PM)Samseau Wrote:  

(07-08-2013 05:24 AM)The Texas Prophet Wrote:  

I also liked Gattaca a lot. It is my favorite sci-fi movie.

The interesting part is that the "genetically engineered" future that is depicted in Gattaca may not be that far away.

China is currently experimenting with genetic engineering and in a few decades could be well on its way to implementing a eugenic program similar to the one depicted in Gattaca:

http://www.vice.com/read/chinas-taking-o...ng-program

Thus the reason people aren't hyper smart and super good-looking is because it probably wouldn't be good for the species. Through hundreds of thousands of years, our specie has determined that it's best to have fewer smart people, fewer beautiful people, etc, and I'm sure it must have occurred for a very good reason.

Something I've always said: a society full of nothing but Einsteins would disintegrate within a decade.

[Icarus]

(07-08-2013 10:47 PM)Wutang Wrote:  

Something I've always said: a society full of nothing but Einsteins would disintegrate within a decade.

True. But that is not the point... at all. And even if it were, it would take centuries to get there.

The point is to have a society in which everyone has enough intelligence to earn a living independently, instead of a society in which millions are addicted to welfare because they are too stupid, and millions are in jail because they are too feral.

If a family has a farm, is self-sufficient, and can employ the younger generations, the state has no business in their breeding. But, when people are not self-sufficient and need to sell their time to an employer, then if the employer fires them and they are forced to live on welfare, they become a burden on society and the state should try to minimize that burden.

It is no coincidence that eugenics became popular after the industrial revolution. Industrialization and the migrations from the countryside to the cities created lots of unemployed people who needed to survive. Bismarck then introduced social security. But, someone who is dependent on the state is by definition not independent. He becomes a serf. Welfare is feudalism in which the serf has rights but no obligations, which is completely unsustainable, of course.