What's your opinion on eugenics?

submitted by detty from (self.AskSaidIt)

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[–]jet199 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

No I'm not just talking about genetic diversity. I'm talking about trade offs which you can't get around.

For instance the genes which make you likely to get gout also stop you getting parkinsons disease. If you wanted to select against gout you'd get more parkinsons in the population and vise versa. There are a lot of trade offs like that in genetics. Most genes effect more than one thing.

High IQ people tend to be highly risk adverse. This is a problem if you need people to make decisions or take risks. This is why most business owners are closer to average intelligence than they are to the top 1% of IQ.

[–]Mcheetah 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

For instance the genes which make you likely to get gout also stop you getting Parkinson's disease. If you wanted to select against gout you'd get more Parkinson's in the population and vise versa. There are a lot of trade offs like that in genetics. Most genes effect more than one thing.

Isn't that still just genetic diversity? Just at a cellular level? I don't get it.

High IQ people tend to be highly risk adverse.

Yes, but this doesn't mean they still aren't, there's just less of them than those who are risk averse but less intelligent. And if the ones who are highly intelligent and successful in being risk averse thrive, than those are the ones who are "fittest." So yes, I see what you mean in trade-offs, but not every potential scenario or trait is necessary.