Re: Eugenics
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I think there's a good chance the brain could stand to restructure itself. Look at all the people with neurological deficits but also with unbelievable mental talents. Idiot savants and the like, those musical geniuses and the hypermnesiacs and the schizophrenic and socipathic geniuses. I think an explosion of variance in mental traits is a good sign: those traits that are well-adapted will presumably be selected for. Of course, our current environment is probably very different from our future environment, and the selective pressures are so unstable right now it's hard to know which way is up.
If we were to create a stable environment that specifically selects for traits that result in a high output of great ideas, technologies, and artworks, then presumably we could "force" the evolution of a kind of ubermensch. Doesn't that follow?
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In theory, maybe, but I think the idea is that it's difficult to increase cognitive ability without some unintended consequences.
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