From: Avatar Polymorph (avatarpolymorph@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu Sep 19 2002 - 05:16:56 MDT
John Grigg writes:
"Taken from the Transtopia website:
There is nothing wrong with the idea of eugenics if it means
making people stronger, healthier, smarter, better looking, and
longer-lived by both selective breeding and the humane
termination of seriously unfit (misshapen, retarded, or
otherwise not viable) specimens, preferably by means of abortion
after thorough genetic screening. Indeed, had selective human
breeding been practiced systematically in the past (as has been
done with many domesticated animal & plant species), humanity
would have been spared a lot of misery, and would now probably
be significantly more advanced. Eugenics is in effect a logical
and moral imperative for any truly "civilized" society, just
like, for example, the abolition of work and the quest for
physical immortality."
I agree with you John that this is disturbing. As John Varley pointed out
long ago, genetic (and protein) therapies can be used to manipulate existant
adults. So too can inter and intra cellular nanotechnologies, with up to 100
supercomputers inside each cells, communicating and monitoring and changing
and repairing DNA via cell repair mechanisms at the nano level. So even
without tech more advanced that what Drexler and others have envisaged, we
have moved fully into self-directed evolution. Physical appearance becomes a
matter of choice. Eugenics thus remains incorrect and negative. Once a
sentient life is created, it has value, Peter Singer notwithstanding. Even
if not fully conscious it has value. That's my opinion. This does not, in my
opinion, apply to plants as they have no neurological system. I myself do
not believe in the concept of a soul in this universe (being a neo-Tiplerian
I retain a belief in possible transference of concsciousness via quantum
splitting however).
Avatar Polymorph
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