Re: REPRODUCTION: choosing embryos

>... Not that I have any problem with super learning environments. My opinion is that we could effectively double human intelligence if we provided more optimal early childhood feedback. But this is so often intimately tied to parental ambition that the negative effects of one are confused with positive effects of the other. >

Dose this imply that groups or individuals outside the child's immediate family may be better suited to the task? Just an idea, but sometimes even a small margin of objectivity can make a huge difference. Children are extremely complex beings & probably require similarly complex systems to accommodate their needs. I'm not suggesting that education be provided by one or the other (parents vs. designated educators) - both groups would obviously have to work in partnership for the best interest of the *child* (not themselves). Also, I would imagine, given more intellectual & creative space/freedom, the child would be more motivated to learn & progress simply for enjoyment rather than coercion. This idea of self-motivation, regardless of its results, should be the cornerstone for any healthy & enduring program of education.

> >>hal@finney.org wrote (16.2.2002/11:08) :

> >> As for the anti-Extropianism of giving birth to a conscious entity with the intention of making him into a little slave who never frees himself from his mother's apron strings, I hope that speaks for itself. > > >In fact, I think it is pretty much the worst thing that parents can do with their children, and it does happen a lot and does generate a lot of suffering, as I have very often observed around me to various degrees. It is the essence of parental abuse, and I am thankful for my own parents to have deliberately and carefuly avoided anything like that. >