Could Eugenics Work now?

[nanook12]

Please pause for a moment and try to refrain from thinking of me as a Nazi or white nationalist and instead lets try to take an unbiased look at the idea of eugenics.

Obviously the history of eugenics makes it look like a pretty horrendous idea, but the Hindenburg also looked like a terrible idea the moment it crashed and scorched the lives of many people. However, that failure of the Hindenburg did not stop humans from creating blimps that now function safely and properly.

Now we have far more scientific tools, such as genetic manipulation and beneficial gene identification, to make the idea of eugenics more plausible with less backlash.

For example, if government were to impose incentives for people to breed with specific partners based on genetic analysis of traits that are beneficial to society without any negative punishment for other breeding, then eugenics would not have such immediate and drastic consequences.

[Stelio Kontos]

Please pause for a moment and try to refrain from thinking of me as a Nazi or white nationalist and instead lets try to take an unbiased look at the idea of eugenics.

Obviously the history of eugenics makes it look like a pretty horrendous idea, but the Hindenburg also looked like a terrible idea the moment it crashed and scorched the lives of many people. However, that failure of the Hindenburg did not stop humans from creating blimps that now function safely and properly.

Now we have far more scientific tools, such as genetic manipulation and beneficial gene identification, to make the idea of eugenics more plausible with less backlash.

For example, if government were to impose incentives for people to breed with specific partners based on genetic analysis of traits that are beneficial to society without any negative punishment for other breeding, then eugenics would not have such immediate and drastic consequences.

Are you prepared to be the one who gets sterilized, prohibited from partnering, or even euthanized for the betterment of society?

[nanook12]

Are you prepared to be the one who gets sterilized, prohibited from partnering, or even euthanized for the betterment of society?

I said nothing about sterilization did I? I said provide incentives to breed traits that are beneficial for society. I did not say people should be punished for other types of breeding. You inserted the idea of sterilization into my original argument although it did not contain it. We call that creating a straw man, attacking it, and claiming like you won something.

[Independent voter]

I knew this was a nanook thread before I clicked on it! Good eugenics on my part.

[Dezerte]

It's still, more or less, the same question of ethics that is the issue with eugenics.

[Stelio Kontos]

I said nothing about sterilization did I? I said provide incentives to breed traits that are beneficial for society. I did not say people should be punished for other types of breeding. You inserted the idea of sterilization into my original argument although it did not contain it. We call that creating a straw man, attacking it, and claiming like you won something.

So that's a no then. You're a proponent of eugenics without being willing to be a victim of eugenics.

Eugenics requires controlled breeding, so how do you propose to stop the "undesirables" from breeding?

[nanook12]

I knew this was a nanook thread before I clicked on it! Good eugenics on my part.

I donno if I am happy or sad to hear that. I like to think I walk the middle line between famous and infamous.

[Deleted]

What is it with you and your borderline insane threads?

[Masark]

traits that are beneficial to society

Please define these.

[Sunseeker]

No. Because people are dumb, selfish and mean.

[Glnger]

lets talk about slavery.... purely as a mental exercise.... of course......

China did this with Yao Ming (sp) the former NBA Rockets? player. They took the two tallest people in China and "breed" them.

Gattica was an interesting scifi movie with insight what a society like that might look like. Whether you breed people for military service or scientists that will fundamentally change the nature of the way we all approach child rearing... which is pretty significant to the human condition imo. You think religious wars are brutal now, i could only imagine that world

[Doomislav]

The main problem with it is who "the authorities" are. Do we have some genetic god's out there that are able to decide the fate of the human genome?

[schwarzkopf]

Define 'work' ?

If you mean to homogenise homo-sapiens and remove the prospect of variety and change, then absolutely it would work.

As to if it is a good thing ... absolutely not.

[Shadowferal]

No. Because people are dumb, selfish and mean.

...and no amount of science will fix any of that.

[Sunseeker]

...and no amount of science will fix any of that.

Which is why eugenics won't help.

[schwarzkopf]

lets talk about slavery.... purely as a mental exercise.... of course......

Slavery is common practice, the only difference is we get the slaves to buy their own food and shelter these days.

[PC2]

The human body and brain hasn't changed that much in 20k years. It is time for eugenics and machines to compete in terms of outperforming current humans at everything.

[nanook12]

lets talk about slavery.... purely as a mental exercise.... of course......

China did this with Yao Ming (sp) the former NBA Rockets? player. They took the two tallest people in China and "breed" them.

Gattica was an interesting scifi movie with insight what a society like that might look like. Whether you breed people for military service or scientists that will fundamentally change the nature of the way we all approach child rearing... which is pretty significant to the human condition imo.

Why not talk about slavery? What if slaves had rights and the owners were benevolent? Hell, human slavery on a large scale would potentially still exist if he didn't learn how to enslave hydrocarbons (oil/gasoline). The moment we run out of ways to generate power through fossil fuels, solar, nuclear, etc is the moment we start seeing human slavery again.

[StayTuned]

Please pause for a moment and try to refrain from thinking of me as a Nazi or white nationalist and instead lets try to take an unbiased look at the idea of eugenics.

Obviously the history of eugenics makes it look like a pretty horrendous idea, but the Hindenburg also looked like a terrible idea the moment it crashed and scorched the lives of many people. However, that failure of the Hindenburg did not stop humans from creating blimps that now function safely and properly.

Now we have far more scientific tools, such as genetic manipulation and beneficial gene identification, to make the idea of eugenics more plausible with less backlash.

For example, if government were to impose incentives for people to breed with specific partners based on genetic analysis of traits that are beneficial to society without any negative punishment for other breeding, then eugenics would not have such immediate and drastic consequences.

Screw that.

Ain't nobody gonna tell me with who to breed with. Seriously now, if the government dares to impose rules on love, even if it's "just an incentive", I'll be the first to amok.

Now people are supposed to have some sort of benefit over me because they decided to breed with genetic freaks. Naw man, not in my books.

[Kaleredar]

Whose to say what the "right" traits are?

Time was that some people thought that having blonde hair and blue eyes were the "best" traits to have, and did an awful lot of bad things to try and further that.

Putting continued time, money, and effort into education, rather than inane breeding programs, is the way forward. So that, among other things, people can see why things like "eugenics" is pseudoscience at best and dystopian scapegoating at the worst.