Questions for American Atheists

[Reforged]

[quote='Rhythm' pid='304353' dateline='1341058386']

Read moar Sci-fi......... Are you honestly having trouble imagining why this road would lead to tears (just judging by your appraisal of why communism never panned out). Off the top of my head, who decides what we encourage and what we "disable"? Who gets access to these procedures and how are they done? Can anyone opt out? If you're not much of a reader try Gattaca or THX1138

Smarter- Excellent, here's to hoping everyone can avail themselves of this procedure for their children, lest we find ourselves in a transparent (and much more dire) two class society, the altered and the unaltered, owners and possessions.
Kinder- Oh yes, despots the world over would be interested in such a procedure. I know I'd rather have a herd of human cattle to have to deal with if I wanted to rule (lazily) with an iron fist.
Genetic Diseases and Defects- Again, a good one, but I'd rather not see any stormtroopers come over the hill on account of this one, and I hope everybody gets access to it.
Athletic- See stormtroopers above..lol.

Lets imagine a similar scenario with only a single point of divergence. Smarter, genetically "perfect", extremely athletic, and about ten times more aggressive and apathetic than your standard human (bonus points for built in unwavering loyalty to command structure). The technology and system would likely be the same. Bit of a pandoras box situation don't you think? Personally, I don't think we're quite ready for that sort of tampering yet. I do think we'll end up trying it out long before we have any business doing so, learning the hard way is kind of our MO.

Not a big fan of sci-fi to be honest.
All you've done is described how current human nature could interfere with such a process which is my point exactly. We haven't trusted in human nature in a long, long time because its an impossible thing to trust. Its obsessively selfish, indiscriminately violent and self-destructive beyond measure.
Some would try to use it for control, some would fear it out of the potential for a feeling of inferiority.
Now lets imagine that people who don't fear it and don't wish to use it for control obtain the technology. They simply want to improve the human race, increase their odds of survival. What then? What incredible improvements could be made? What gifts could be passed down to our children in the hopes they may have a better future than we dared dream possible? In time mans aggression, his lust for power and appetite for destruction will consume and destroy itself. This is a destination we're hurtling toward, we all know it.
What if this is the key to our continued existance as a race and we're ignoring it out of fear?