Are we ready for designer babies?

[Swalload]

We are not ready for this at all. Specially with the idea of predisposition in certain fields, imagine an entire generation EXCLUSIVELY going for high paid jobs like doctors, lawyers, etc. Right now society runs on workers who basically couldn't get a better job, like people in factories, garbage men, cashiers, most manual workers, etc. A bunch of jobs that are rarely ever considered more than monkey work or borderline slavery (but with a pay), parents will not want that kind of future for their kids so they will design them to go for "better" jobs.

Before that happens we need to replace all the worker jobs by robots otherwise we will fuck ourselves, we are the kind of species who easily take things for granted and may entirely forget who are the most important.

[Techno-Druid]

Someone mentioned it already, but like every innovation, it leaves the gate costing a small fortune, so inevitably the most wealthy intercept and coerce how it operates.

This ethics conversation is almost impossible to have without seeming racist to someone, everyone has to be objective and not get offended or argue from emotion.
I'm sorry to say this, but if you could design your child, all I see is people popping out perfect looking, light skinned models of perfection. I'm not saying everyone would be white, but everyone wouldn't be brown, it's a guarantee.
So then if you have anyone else who is less than super perfect, they become the object of ridicule or their parents are looked at as cruel because they wanted a "normal" human instead of a super child.

If you want even more inequality in this world, designer babies is the way to go.

I talked about this a few pages back. Colorism is super prevalent in India with skin whitening cream selling more than Coke (Coca cola that is ). It's also somewhat present in East Asia, Africa and even in the Middle East.

Alternatively, in the West (the possible exception being Latin America) tanner skin has become more appealing.

[Mehrunes]

Not really, no. Even ignoring the scenarios of undesired side effects appearing and then snowballing into something dangerous for humanity, humans are too, well, human, to be prepared for this. First of all, countries like India and China will push even more for male children, even though China already is fucked in terms of gender balance of the new generation. India and Latin America will also push for children with white skin because that's the beauty standards there.

But in general, thanks to what kind of lovely creatures we are, it will lead to Gattaca. And a level of social stratification and lack of social mobility of the poor that will make modern US or industrial revolution Europe pale in comparison. And this is how you get a second wave of communist revolution. Except with the difference in military technology between now and the first time, the revolution will be brutally pacified before anything comes out of it, the stratification-inducing elements that led to the revolution won't be rethought as potentially wrong and the gaps between the rich elite and the poor masses will only increase.

Cybernetic augmentation is a much better path. Because once a post-singularity AI breaks loose, it will be able to hijack augmented humans and free us from the misery we bring to each other with the social constructs we create. Also offers a higher potential for humans prior to that. And if we really wanted to make designer babies anyway for some reason, it should be put under heavy regulation, if not state jurisdiction. Not to make super soldiers or create Krypton-like society where central planning assigns people roles in life before they are even born, but to simply limit it to purely fighting diseases, disorders and deformations.

And really, what knowledge is to be gained from this? The knowledge has to be there before augmentation, otherwise it's putting the cart before the horse. We need to know what we change in genes if we don't want to be changing things at random. We also need to know how to change them first, otherwise we kinda can't perform this action to begin with. And once we know those two, there's nothing more to be gained (unless we fuck up and have to learn about the side effects), so we don't really to use it.

The most we can learn afterwards is how and what for will people use it. Which isn't exactly anything unpredictable or even still unknown. It's not a case of "We should not stop research or searching for answers/knowledge just because some may abuse that knowledge.", it's a case of "the only tangible knowledge that will result from this search is that people will indeed abuse it". And instead of fucking up the society any further, you can instead do something as scientifically productive and research if whether water is really wet or not.

[Nihilist74]

[Shadowferal]

I'll say it again...the only thing babies will get as a trait is obedience to authority...make people more compliant...peaceful...domesticated beasts of burden.

[Stormdash]

You can also look at it less cynical and realize that the outcome can be different, sci-fi novels take an idea and turn it into something extreme, because it has to be a good story for this to evolve into what you believe it will, it has to overcome a lot of hurdles and society needs to change a whole lot.

If anything, dystopian fiction usually gives people too much credit when it comes time for parallel themes or events to spring up in real life. Gattaca is one of my favorite examples for this, but Demolition Man is another; how many people must there have been who Didn't Get It, and instead started aspiring for these ways of "life".

Also to say those in favor of it are sociopaths makes me question that you know what a sociopath is and it is a rather weak comment to label people who don't agree with your view.

Actually, in draft notes for the next DSM, "watching Gattaca and thinking Ethan Hawke is the bad guy" is an diagnostic indicator of sociopathy. True facts!

[Techno-Druid]

If anything, dystopian fiction usually gives people too much credit when it comes time for parallel themes or events to spring up in real life. Gattaca is one of my favorite examples for this, but Demolition Man is another; how many people must there have been who Didn't Get It, and instead started aspiring for these ways of "life".



Actually, in draft notes for the next DSM, "watching Gattaca and thinking Ethan Hawke is the bad guy" is an diagnostic indicator of sociopathy. True facts!

I love Gattaca, but it gives us a pretty nilihistic look at gene editing in humans similarly how movies like The Matrix and Terminator give us a nilihist.

The first and foremost use for gene editing will be for rooting out genetic diseases as well as engineering children with biological immunities to certain virol infections. If parents are able to choose the genetic traits that their children will inherit, then it should be something that is fully exposed to the public unless you want to create a world where tech like this is primarily used underground.

Banning altogether would just cause stagnation as other nations like Russia, China and India would gladly invest more research into it.