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More realistically I think will be genetically selecting super smart babies. Most likely this is already being done today. As it proves to be effective people

More realistically I think will be genetically selecting super smart babies. Most likely this is already being done today. As it proves to be effective people will get better and better at it until we start genetically selecting and even engineering superminds.

haydenlee 10y ago
These ideas aren't mutually exclusive.
nradov 10y ago
There's no free lunch when it comes to genetics. If it was possible to be a lot smarter without negative consequences then we probably would have evolved it already. Most likely there are some downsides such as increased risk of depression, autism, schizophrenia, etc.
- btschaegg 10y ago
  Perhaps. Another explanation might be that it doesn't produce enough evolutionary advantages in the context of a human society. One could also argue that the medical advancements of the last 100 years or so have greatly reduced the evolutionary pressure created by "bodily weakness", and I'd imagine similar arguments could be made in the opposite direction when it comes to other factors (like the norms of a society and its influence on the advantage of mental capabilities of some kind). It would be very interesting to see in what ways societies "skew" the evolutionary process. Does anyone know of good research/data in this direction?
  - adrianN 10y ago
    Those lines of research are usually shut down because of claims of racism. Researching genetic differences between different societies is frowned upon. There are for example people who claim that Jews tend to excel in science because historically they have been banned from many trades and retreated into more intellectual fields like banking.
    - btschaegg 10y ago
      Hm, yeah. If the research is focused on specific cultures I can see that being a problem in that regard.
    - nradov 10y ago
      There's nothing stopping researchers from searching for correlations between certain genes and intellectual ability (or at least performance on standardized tests as a proxy). Bringing race or ethnicity into the issue doesn't add anything.
- deleted 10y ago
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btschaegg 10y ago
This makes me wonder at what stage we can actually start to draw parallels to Huxley's Brave new World... Or are we already past that threshold?
Tepix 10y ago
According to Kurzweil (and I don't see anything wrong in his logic), improvements due to genetic selection will pale in comparison to exponentially growing intelligence that's outside our biologic brains (but may be interconnected).

haydenlee 10y ago

These ideas aren't mutually exclusive.

nradov 10y ago

There's no free lunch when it comes to genetics. If it was possible to be a lot smarter without negative consequences then we probably would have evolved it already. Most likely there are some downsides such as increased risk of depression, autism, schizophrenia, etc.

btschaegg 10y ago
Perhaps. Another explanation might be that it doesn't produce enough evolutionary advantages in the context of a human society. One could also argue that the medical advancements of the last 100 years or so have greatly reduced the evolutionary pressure created by "bodily weakness", and I'd imagine similar arguments could be made in the opposite direction when it comes to other factors (like the norms of a society and its influence on the advantage of mental capabilities of some kind). It would be very interesting to see in what ways societies "skew" the evolutionary process. Does anyone know of good research/data in this direction?
- adrianN 10y ago
  Those lines of research are usually shut down because of claims of racism. Researching genetic differences between different societies is frowned upon. There are for example people who claim that Jews tend to excel in science because historically they have been banned from many trades and retreated into more intellectual fields like banking.
  - btschaegg 10y ago
    Hm, yeah. If the research is focused on specific cultures I can see that being a problem in that regard.
  - nradov 10y ago
    There's nothing stopping researchers from searching for correlations between certain genes and intellectual ability (or at least performance on standardized tests as a proxy). Bringing race or ethnicity into the issue doesn't add anything.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

btschaegg 10y ago

This makes me wonder at what stage we can actually start to draw parallels to Huxley's Brave new World... Or are we already past that threshold?

Tepix 10y ago

According to Kurzweil (and I don't see anything wrong in his logic), improvements due to genetic selection will pale in comparison to exponentially growing intelligence that's outside our biologic brains (but may be interconnected).