2012 Debunked

[littlegrimlin1]

Censorship is so overated at our school also. We can't even get on wikipedia, or this site for that matter. I may have it the worst of both of you lol. What would be the big difference if our schools did not censor everything? I can't imagine it different. 'cept I'd be on the AF ALL the time!!! lol

We are skewing off into a tangent however, maybe a thread needs to be made? lul

[Rhizomorph13]

Our bodies will naturally evolve very little if the last 65 million years can be any sort of guide We may begin 'evolutionary' programs aimed at strengthening 'Humans' in the future sometime though

Sae,

What you are talking about here is called eugenics and has been imagined by several people including me. The only problem with eugenics is deciding which traits should be masked out and which should be encouraged.

It seems the next logical step to try to strengthen our genome or maybe even specialize different sets of people by purposly handicapping some of them so they won't be bothered by an active mind while they set to the drudgery of their workday. We could call them epsilons...

Rhizo

[Violet]

What you are talking about here is called eugenics and has been imagined by several people including me. The only problem with eugenics is deciding which traits should be masked out and which should be encouraged.

It seems the next logical step to try to strengthen our genome or maybe even specialize different sets of people by purposly handicapping some of them so they won't be bothered by an active mind while they set to the drudgery of their workday. We could call them epsilons...

eugenics |yoōˈjeniks|
plural noun [treated as sing. ]
the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. Developed largely by Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race, it fell into disfavor only after the perversion of its doctrines by the Nazis.

What does eugenics have to do with drugs???

Although you would increase productivity of the society (with those drugs)... it would cease to be a society... it would be a machine. How is denying an active mind a logical step? All that does is lower technological achievement, individuality, and everything that makes us human. We would essentially become the failure that is the Hive-Mind. As a race, we would cease to function.

The strength of humanity... is that we are individuals who work together. The weakness of the Hive is that it is of but one mind. However much you think it might seem the next logical step to reduce individuality: that is the least rational thing you could possibly do.

With voluntary eugenics... many medical problems could be bred out of us. We would also see improvements in whatever category we are breeding for.

[theblindferrengi]

This is starting to sound like an Orwell book, and as far as I know, there are no North Koreans here, so thats not going to happen.

[Violet]

The author of Animal Farm? I guess it might sound a bit like it

[Rhizomorph13]

This is starting to sound like an Orwell book, and as far as I know, there are no North Koreans here, so thats not going to happen.

Aldous Huxley actually. I was making a reference to "A Brave New World" when I mentioned epsilons. In that wonderful book they stratified society into 5 grades of people: alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and epsilons. Alphas were the genetic creme of the crop and would be leaders, scientists, and engineers. Betas would be clerical staff and managers. Gammas would be service workers. Deltas would be hard laborers. Epsilons would perform menial tasks like pushing buttons in an elevator... no really. Alphas would not be cloned, betas would only have a limited batch, gammas would have several clones each, while deltas and epsilons would be cloned to the furthest extent of cloning which was 96 times according to the book if I recall correctly.

Sae,

The reason I mentioned drugs is because the discussion of eugenics made me think of what our goal would be, which led me to imagine the strata of Aldous' book, which is why I mentioned it at all. The goal of eugenics would be to improve society and there are other ways, besides genetic manipulation, to acheive that goal.

Rhizo

[littlegrimlin1]

I'm not sure how eugenics could be implemented in our society today without a group of people raising a stink about it. Laws could be enacted to where a person has to be examined and have their family history traced in order to have some kind of license to reproduce with someone else that also has that license.

Just an idea from me. (if you haven't seen it before somewhere else before, never looked it up)

[Rhizomorph13]

I once had the idea to sterilize all people at birth and they would have to apply for a license to undo the procedure. Yeah, I used to imagine the government as my parents and it seemed rational to hand over all control to them but now I realize just how crazy that is and sterilizing people at birth is looney as toons get.

Rhizo

[downbeatplumb]

This is starting to sound like an Orwell book, and as far as I know, there are no North Koreans here, so thats not going to happen.

Aldous Huxley actually. I was making a reference to "A Brave New World" when I mentioned epsilons. In that wonderful book they stratified society into 5 grades of people: alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and epsilons. Alphas were the genetic creme of the crop and would be leaders, scientists, and engineers. Betas would be clerical staff and managers. Gammas would be service workers. Deltas would be hard laborers. Epsilons would perform menial tasks like pushing buttons in an elevator... no really. Alphas would not be cloned, betas would only have a limited batch, gammas would have several clones each, while deltas and epsilons would be cloned to the furthest extent of cloning which was 96 times according to the book if I recall correctly.

Sae,

The reason I mentioned drugs is because the discussion of eugenics made me think of what our goal would be, which led me to imagine the strata of Aldous' book, which is why I mentioned it at all. The goal of eugenics would be to improve society and there are other ways, besides genetic manipulation, to acheive that goal.

Rhizo

But as i recall the book explained that a society of all alphas would end in disaster.
Too many chiefs and not enough indians.

[Violet]

The reason I mentioned drugs is because the discussion of eugenics made me think of what our goal would be, which led me to imagine the strata of Aldous' book, which is why I mentioned it at all. The goal of eugenics would be to improve society and there are other ways, besides genetic manipulation, to acheive that goal.

The goal with eugenics is the same with the goal in breeding other animals: to improve their genome in a way that is desired (such as breeding out diseases, or breeding for greater strength). I don't see why it would be mandatory (which would be the only reasonable qualm with eugenics, if at all well implemented anyway)... and I agree that there are many other things that can improve humanity as a species...

But i don't see why voluntary eugenics couldn't take place alongside them

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But as i recall the book explained that a society of all alphas would end in disaster.
Too many chiefs and not enough indians.

Psh, that is ridiculous. There will always be the greatest alpha to control the mass of lesser alphas. There would be an equivalent number of chiefs to the number now... but the indians would be much more capable of doing what they already do.