Whenever I bring up the topic of eugenics many people cringe and suddenly act as if I am satin. They try to change the topic or they become incredibly hostile. I understand their fear and at one time years ago I too felt the same fear they express when hearing such words. However, I have come to realize their fear is irrational. In fact I believe their fear will be the down fall of the entire human race.

For decades western society has been using the very same brain wasting tactics employed by Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, North Korea, and many other nations which we consider ourselves so different from.They use symbolism to change the way we feel about particular words and ideas, and they employ patriotism to sell their ideologies to the masses. By they I mean us. We are our own worst enemy and continue to deceive ourselves in to thinking within the confines of a very small box. The word eugenics bring images of genocide, Nazis, Hitler and mass suffering.

In reality it is quite possibly mankind's only hope for survival. We as humans are gods in comparison to other animals, and rules which apply to every other living being on earth no longer apply to us. One of these rules is survival of the fittest. Despite our massive gene pool every child born introduces new mutations which neither parent has. These mutations will continue to accumulate with every new generation and medical science will keep even the most deformed human beings alive. At this time the only thing which makes one human more 'fit' than another is the rate at which they reproduce.

Inevitably this trend will lead to a massively over populated planet full of morons. With so many breeders and so few thinkers we will likely run in to a situation where there will be few resources and an almost endless number of mouths to feed. It will be normal to work 16 hours a day in order to buy enough rice to live and pay for a 7 by 4 foot bed shelf. This sounds a lot like china doesn't it?

Even if a law were passed today limiting the number of children one could have, genetic deterioration would still continue. You may hold out hope for genetic engineering or perhaps divine intervention but I am not so blindly optimistic. Before you dismiss what I have said as crazy ramblings at least read this and consider that the feelings you have towards eugenics may not be based on reality but on politics. I have a feeling this topic will not be met with open arms and at least one moderator will feel the need to close this thread since it will deeply conflict with their belief system or they will merely think I am trolling. I assure you all this issue genuinely concerns me and I only want the truth to be known.

There are 2 main problems with eugenics in my opinion :

• Who can decides who is a more 'valuable' humain being (having better genome here) than another ? What defines a good genome ? Criteria ? It leads to dead end ethical problem.
  
• Biologically it's a non sense. Because diversity is the key of evolution. Eugenics leads to end of species because it gets poorer and poorer the genome, thinking it improves it.
  
  

Why are you posting this on game development board?

Do you have no other place to go to?

Why do you seem to be so obsessed with eugenics... tsk tsk

Eugenics is an outdated model, formed from the theories of genetics around the 1940s. We've well gone pass those models, we have technology beyond their imagination now, we can change the genetic code in vitro, in vivo, and in the germ line of any organism now.. Heck we created artificial satellite chromosomes in the 1980s which can be inherited forever by the organisms we engineer.. Now were building organism from scratch from pure synthetic DNA..

Genetic engineering of people is pretty much inevitable, first it will be used for medical purposes, like fixing genetic diseases but eventually it will be used for augmented purposes.. Once we get a better understanding of the genes in question.. Don't you want your child to be a 6+ foot athletic genius? Most people will.. But all this will fall under the preview of "Genetic Counselling" which already exist. It's a personal decision by the parents not some social engineering program of the State based on breeding and sterilization ( like farm animals ), nothing so primitive.

-ddn

Intelligence is not actually that great as a survival trait. If I could afford to have a child with any willing sperm donor I wouldn't particularly seek out a genius.

Also, OP clearly doesn't quite get population genetics and mate selection. Ill health often results in looking unattractive in some way, or lacking the energy to pursue a mate, or lacking the focus to earn a living and take care of one's appearance, so people who have various inherited health problems are less likely to reproduce than those who look healthy.

Do you have no other place to go to?[/quote]
Good point. Its the gamedev lounge, I think too much off topic stuff goes here and its usually not interesting such as this.

Babies are not born intelligent, so eugenics won't work in your survival of the fittest. I was not born knowing c++ or physics or electronics.

Can we start a eugenics program by getting everyone who thinks the program will actually work to "go first"? Then the rest of us can go back to ignoring the subject for awhile.

The earth is going to become over populated? Right. Look at actual birth rates of developed countries with generally higher education levels. Last I heard Canada currently has more people retiring than we have people entering the work force. My father? Had 6 brothers, and 7 Sisters. He had 3 kids. Currently there are 2 grand kids in total, and neither me nor my brother are planning kids any time in our lives.

Want to solve the problems you think you're seeing? Help raise education, employment, and health care levels. Boom. Population issues solved.


Or, take a look at your own genetics. Are they perfect? Are they flawless? Do you sign your cheques "Superman"? Do you own a crystal ball? Do you know which blood lines will avoid dying to the super-flu of 2235 that sweeps across the planet?

The majority of Eugenics program suggestions I have read basically amount to a game of Russian Roulette in the long term. Also, do humans today look the same as they did millions of years ago? Guess what, things change. Deal with it.

Not sure how this hasn't been posted yet...

Ok, so of the following people, who do you think should be allowed to reproduce:

- Ugly people
- Stupid people
- Mentally ill people
- Short people
- People with glasses
- People with lactose intolerance
- People with tooth decay (personally, this is the one I'm all for, it's the stupidest thing that we have to brush our teeth twice a day. My cat doesn't need to do that).


Of course I don't know what you'd pick, but if you'd pick like most eugenicists do, then you probably have to invert your list to actually have a point. Thing is that the traits eugenicists value are traits that are considered important by most people, and so (sexual) selection works just fine on them. It's those annoying shortcomings of us, like tooth decay, for which your argument may actually hold ground.