Re: Eugenics
 

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the mouse/snake/mongoose/gorilla problem.

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And what is this problem?

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I think it's from the Simpsons. The solutions to the problem (introducing predators) turn out to produce new problems.

Re: Eugenics
 

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...the mouse/snake/mongoose/gorilla problem.

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Ah, that old chestnut.

Re: Eugenics
 

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What are the problems with eugenics (other than possible moral problems)? Don't genes matter enough?

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you cannot just cast the moral issues aside, particularly when they are at the crux of the argument against eugenics .

Re: Eugenics
 

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the mouse/snake/mongoose/gorilla problem.

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And what is this problem?

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I think it's from the Simpsons. The solutions to the problem (introducing predators) turn out to produce new problems.

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but the beautiful part is, when wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.

Re: Eugenics
 

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What are the problems with eugenics

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Depends on exactly what mean by eugenics.

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other than possible moral problems

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Does not seem reasonably to ignore the moral problems.

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Sounds like a reasonable idea to me, that we would try to increase the amount of positive traits (empathy, intelligence, happiness, beauty...) by only making new people from sperm and egg cells of people with those traits.

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Seems like a disastrous idea. The form of policing that would be need to implement these rules would far out do any imagined befits. I expect there would also be practical problems with implementation due to popular resistance.

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Eugenics could solve the problem that stupid people reproduce more

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Why is that a problem?

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while also hopefully increasing people's happiness (by fitting better to modern environment like cities) and making people care more about each other, animals and future generations.

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Yikes! I’m 180º on this one.

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I know there's the stigma because of nazis and "unnaturality", but I think we should try to get over that if it means we can solve other huge problems.

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I don’t see the other huge problems.

Re: Eugenics
 

The biggest problem is that it is

1.) Extremely oppressive.

But ok, you said we should disregard that. The remaining problems are:

2.) It is illogical. It is based on assumptions that are at best misguided.
3.) It is impractical. Because enforcing it means totalitarity, which has a tendency to both fail spectacularly and be very expensive.
4.) It has severe implications. Eugenics in the past has led to some fairly bad political practices and some pretty stupid beliefs.
5.) It is biased. Eugenics is usually not a result of some sound scientific insight but more a confirmation of some naive prejudice.
6.) It doesn't solve the problem it pretends to solve. You still end up with someone deciding who gets to reproduce based on partially subjective criteria.
7.) It makes hazy assumptions. Eugenics assumes that the answer to a rather complex problem lies in only one place.
8.) It isn't realistic. Eugenics even if we assumed it had no flaws would only work in an completely idealistic setting.

It is most ways like the 'benevolent dictator' idea. Intellectual dung which someone with severe bias tries to make look good.

Re: Eugenics
 

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What are the problems with eugenics (other than possible moral problems)? Don't genes matter enough?

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Are you insane? Have you got any understanding of evolution? Don't you know that it goes by trial and error, that it is the combination of genes that matters and that genii are born sometimes to moronic parents?

What you are suggesting is a weakening of the gene pool!

Re: Eugenics
 

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foal,
how about just criminalizing making a second own child? I don't see need for forced sterilization. Forced abortion, maybe, depending on how early it is (I don't have an opinion on abortion really).

I know it sounds unpleasant, but I see a LOT of potential in it.


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I think China did this for awhile if not even to the present time. Welcome, Comrade!!

It's all about morality.

Modern abstract and especially scientific thought places man as a fifth wheel in thinking and therefore finds no connections to the world. This is the road to "no morality" in life. All of the world(s) are a moral tone poem. Look out into nature and this can be revealed to an artistic perception. Man is a part of this "moral tonality", a part of nature even though he disassociates himself in thought from nature which in reality is his very being.

Re: Eugenics
 

Tame Deuces summed it up.

Re: Eugenics
 

http://pbpl.physics.ucla.edu/About_U...ler/smails.jpg

"The world needs ditch diggers too."