Genetic engineering [was: RE: DNA of relative indicts man, cuckol ding ignored]

Major Variola (ret) mv at cdc.gov
Mon Jul 7 14:23:06 PDT 2003


At 03:59 PM 7/7/03 -0400, Trei, Peter wrote:
>There are some things where nearly everyone will agree
>a genetic fix is desirable - for example, suceptibility to
>heart disease, cancer, dental caries, and myopia. Other
>'vanity' fixes seem pretty harmless - being tall, busty,
>or having a well-stuffed package.
>
>Its when we get to 'fixes' to behaviour and personality
>that things start to get very hairy.

Although your examples are important, anyone who
has or has known someone with depression,
schizophrenia, or ADD [1] will argue that *subjectively unpleasant*
mental ills are as worth fixing as bad teeth.  If not more so.


I fear that those in
>power will use genetic engineering as they have used
>every other tool at their disposal - weapons, states,
>laws, and governments - to maintain their position at
>the expense of the overall welfare of the species, by
>allowing improvements only to their own descendents,
>while requiring changes to those out of power which
>make it harder for them to change their status.

Agreed, as with the rest of your post.  There are real
horrorshow future possibilities.

One more point.  What is "adaptive" depends on
your environment.  As I try to explain to my
more pigmented wife (it comes up because my
3.8 year old is in the "why" phase) while I'd get skin cancer
in tropical zones, she'd get rickets in more
northerly areas.

Extrapolate to personality properties like
"inhibition" (recently shown to be persistant
from 2 to 20 year olds ie genetic)  "aggression", etc.

[1] Please don't lets start the flame about chemical coercion
in mandatory youth education camps.  Real ADD
fucks people up.  Which is not to say that M.Y.E.C.
are well designed nor that ADD treatments are abused.





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