you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Transhumanism has a focus on the individual and using technology to surpass human biology. Eugenics, although people have proposed using genetic modification, can be done with nothing more than the same techniques we use for livestock.

[–]FourteenDigitz 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

“Surpassing human biology” is literally a form of eugenics, and it’s a slippery slope to GM and selective breeding

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

What I'm saying is that eugenics can be done within the constraints of nature without meddling with our DNA directly or through some other technological means. We wouldn't surpass our genetics, just optimize them. Breed out disease and defects.

What's wrong with selective breeding?

[–]FourteenDigitz 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

“Breeding out disease and defects” is good on the surface, but who gets to decide what is and isn’t considered a defect worthy of being bred out? You? Me? Elon Musk? How do we stop harmless mutations from being labelled as “defects” to be purged?

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

I don't believe in forced eugenics at all, it should be optional. The snag that hits is one of the reasons I mentioned Gattaca, the regular people will probably end up becoming de facto second class citizens to improved humans.

How do we stop harmless mutations from being labelled as “defects” to be purged?

That is a big problem, I mean it's not just minor stuff that seems harmless. Tendencies towards things like drug addiction and violence, or mental illness, are negative traits that seem like they should be attempted to be bred out if possible, but you'd be erasing a lot of important people in history were this, just as a thought experiment, able to be applied retroactively.

We'd need to reassess what traits are truly undesirable, honestly, and we probably aren't going to be super happy with the results.