MESSAGE
| DATE | 2005-02-16 |
| FROM | Billy
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [hangout] wblogs are BS
|
Ruben Safir Secretary NYLXS wrote:
>> I just finished a great far-future SF (God Emperor of Dune)
>> about human evolution in which the hero/villain concludes
>> that humans are soft and need to be preyed upon again.
> I think as a fact, we are de-evolving because of modern medicine. Our overall
> gene pool is being weakened as diabetics, asthmatics, emotionally disturbed, etc
> patients are surviving conditions which would have killed them in previous generations.
>
> Note: This is not a moral statement, just an observation.
If that's not a moral statement, I don't know what is.
It's a formula for a cost/benefit guide to evaluate
human activities, which is what morality is all
about, isn't it?
The concepts of "weakness" and "strength" are elusive with
regard to gene pools. Genes are complicated enough that
you can't apply a fixed set of metrics and come up with
a "strength" of a population. The sickle cell looks
like a weakness until malaria makes it a strength.
There are individuals of incredible mental power (Newton
and other 'Rain Men') who wouldn't likely have lasted
long in the savannah (the celibacy didn't help, in his case),
and yet neture itself is shaped by their achievements.
The very 'weakness' of our gene pool may enable their
creation. This only works to a certain shallow limit,
but I think it serves to show that applying a value
metric to 1TB of GATTACA is a temptation best avoided.
The Neanderthal Newton would have been beaten to death
with a stick for being an asshole.
____________________________
NYLXS: New Yorker Free Software Users Scene
Fair Use -
because it's either fair use or useless....
NYLXS is a trademark of NYLXS, Inc
|
|
