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I’m just not comfortable with this. Maybe I’m just getting old and maybe I have seen too many movies but I feel uneasy about our children and maybe us having an

I’m just not comfortable with this. Maybe I’m just getting old and maybe I have seen too many movies but I feel uneasy about our children and maybe us having another “grade” put on them. I’d like to think this would be good so maybe some one will comment how this won’t eventually go too far. If altering starts happening which I would imagine it will at one point will be no longer human (and maybe that is a good thing). Maybe at some point like in the Altered Carbon series it won’t even matter and it will just go back to money (or maybe it will always be the case as the ultimate grade).

adrianN 9y ago
Long before we'll have the technology to alter genes reliably we will be able to select embryos before implantation. This is possible even today. Better genetic testing and improvements in fertility medicine only makes it cheaper and more effective.
cm2187 9y ago
But these studies are merely going to give you a correlation. It will always be very hard to prove direct causality without experimentation, which on humans is not really feasible or without a full understanding of how the brain works, which we are still very far from. The other thing is that the way I like to think of our brain is like a muscle. Our DNA drives much of the range in which we can develop our muscles, people born with a certain body type will never be an athlete, but even if you are born with good muscular capacity, a KFC-eating couch potato will never get to the olympics. What one does with this capacity matters a lot. Only science will tell but I like to think that the brains works in a similar way. Some kids will never be geniuses but there is still a wide range in which they can evolve so there is no reason to corner them in a box.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  Even trained practitioners have trouble treating statistics like statistics. For example, the anecdotes in http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28166019 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28166019 So the idea that people in general aren't going to mistreat and over-interpret the information gathered is a little ambitious.
quotemstr 9y ago
One general rule of life I've learned: it's never better to live in ignorance. If you have a chance to learn a fact and the idea of knowing it fills you with dread, you should regard the hesitation as a strong signal that you should go ahead with learning it anyway. Even if it's initially painful, the knowledge will be ultimately useful. Scientific facts about ourselves, both general and specific, are among the most painful. We go through lives deluding ourselves. That's why modern scientific introspection is so important and why it'll ultimately lead to a better world.
- ryukafalz 9y ago
  If it were possible to obtain this information completely anonymously, I would jump on this chance. But I certainly don't want to give my genetic info to insurance companies, especially since I don't know what it says about me yet. It's not my reaction I'm worried about, it's the reaction of the companies I interact with that want to make a profit off me.
  - quotemstr 9y ago
    Since when is making a profit morally suspect?
    - ryukafalz 9y ago
      Making a profit on its own isn't. Making a profit at the expensive of everyone else is. It's certainly possible to charge people more or less based on whether or not they won the genetic lottery. It's also a really shitty thing to do.
beckler 9y ago
If you're open to it, you should watch Gattaca. Despite it being fiction, it goes pretty deep into eugenics and genetic discriminationin a modern society.

adrianN 9y ago

Long before we'll have the technology to alter genes reliably we will be able to select embryos before implantation. This is possible even today. Better genetic testing and improvements in fertility medicine only makes it cheaper and more effective.

cm2187 9y ago

But these studies are merely going to give you a correlation. It will always be very hard to prove direct causality without experimentation, which on humans is not really feasible or without a full understanding of how the brain works, which we are still very far from. The other thing is that the way I like to think of our brain is like a muscle. Our DNA drives much of the range in which we can develop our muscles, people born with a certain body type will never be an athlete, but even if you are born with good muscular capacity, a KFC-eating couch potato will never get to the olympics. What one does with this capacity matters a lot. Only science will tell but I like to think that the brains works in a similar way. Some kids will never be geniuses but there is still a wide range in which they can evolve so there is no reason to corner them in a box.

maxerickson 9y ago
Even trained practitioners have trouble treating statistics like statistics. For example, the anecdotes in http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28166019 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28166019 So the idea that people in general aren't going to mistreat and over-interpret the information gathered is a little ambitious.

quotemstr 9y ago

One general rule of life I've learned: it's never better to live in ignorance. If you have a chance to learn a fact and the idea of knowing it fills you with dread, you should regard the hesitation as a strong signal that you should go ahead with learning it anyway. Even if it's initially painful, the knowledge will be ultimately useful. Scientific facts about ourselves, both general and specific, are among the most painful. We go through lives deluding ourselves. That's why modern scientific introspection is so important and why it'll ultimately lead to a better world.

ryukafalz 9y ago
If it were possible to obtain this information completely anonymously, I would jump on this chance. But I certainly don't want to give my genetic info to insurance companies, especially since I don't know what it says about me yet. It's not my reaction I'm worried about, it's the reaction of the companies I interact with that want to make a profit off me.
- quotemstr 9y ago
  Since when is making a profit morally suspect?
  - ryukafalz 9y ago
    Making a profit on its own isn't. Making a profit at the expensive of everyone else is. It's certainly possible to charge people more or less based on whether or not they won the genetic lottery. It's also a really shitty thing to do.

beckler 9y ago

If you're open to it, you should watch Gattaca. Despite it being fiction, it goes pretty deep into eugenics and genetic discriminationin a modern society.