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Galileo Was Wrong: The Hubris of Anti-Science
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*sigh*
The fatal flaw of religious debate.
When I have these arguments, I always feel like Superman when he gets cut by an enchanted sword or something.
"Oh, fuck. Magic. Forgot about that. Yeah, I got nothin'."
o_O
Well he has a son so he's clearly not impotent.
Angelic IVF doesn't count.
Oh dear. Awesome video though, and that guy has a vastly better video manner than most amateurs I've seen. I think I would be a bit concerned if I was employing him to do stuff for me in a lab though.
It's a very nice amateur video. It's not some grainy footage, the audio is clear, and he's not using a blackboard to outline his points. More importantly, he stays on message and, for the first half, lays out his evidence behind his belief and discredits the evidence he doesn't like for the second half. Half and half = sensible presentation skills.
That was a mistake.
I honestly had no idea what to say when their response was "I didn't come from a fish". Well, aside from that I don't want to live here anymore.
I don't know why the idea is such an adverse thing to people.
We're not going to evolve anymore because we're *in a deep, heroic voice* MASTERS OF OUR ENVIRONMENT!
I don't see us evolving all that much anymore. We may lose an allele here or there or pick up some nifty new combinations from interbreeding, but most of modern civilization is basically meant to negate natural selection. People are breeding that nature would have weeded out, or who would be unable to breed "in the wild."
Technology moves faster than biology. Rather than waiting to evolve a lair of blubber or thick fur, we just cut it off another animal and strap it on, ta da! Now we're a cold weather species.
Edit: Beat'd with a He Man reference. Damnit.
Hah!
Also, if we use technology instead of biology to enhance ourselves, we can evolve in a sense by going cyborg. Metal arms, legs, computer chips, interfaces for the eyes, etc.
Well we are still going through periods of "evolution", at least on the molecular and genetic level, but I don't know how confident I am that millions of years down the road humans will look vastly different than we do now if we keep up with technology.
Unless those futurists are correct.
I think this line could be carried into a new thread, and I was thinking about making this very thread a few days ago. If I have the energy/time I will work on it.
I think you underestimate how the modern world can still apply selective pressure on individuals. Shit, except for our head, we've barely evolved since the Homo erectus. I expect we'll continue evolving, and the results will stay largely in how our cranium develops.
Or the Andrew Ryan route and do it genetically. Which I actually see happening in the next hundred years. Gene therapy is already proving effective at combating some diseases, I can see a push to make a more advanced permanent method into a childhood "vaccine" meant to inoculate an entire bloodline against genetic disorders, some forms of cancer, etc. Sort of like the eradication of smallpox, once it's complete you don't have to keep doing it regularly.
Neither genetic nor cyborg modification are really evolution in the classic sense, though.
Of course, tamper too much and you'll wind up with something that isn't really human anymore. But is that really that bad of a thing in the long run?
MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
Gattaca! Gattaca!
on everything
Nah, we'll just have anti-gravity vests.
Fuck that, who wants quiet when you can have flame spewing rockets?
The current healthcare system in any country could certainly provide genetic engineering to everyone of every social class.
...Or could it?
Really, you probably would see a new species emerge in the middle of humanity, but it would be bred from those of a high enough social class as to afford expensive genetic engineering modifications--the practical ones aside, what about the elective modifications? The poor stay poor and the rich get more beautiful and impervious to cancer.
Firefighters Wanted: Flammable organisms need not apply.
Put one on a toaster and its the future baby.
I suspect actually improving people is a long way away, although I would not be surprised if genetic diseases are all gone in the west within a few generations.
In any case, having all the wealth in the hands of people who are literally designed be extremely smart and generally awesome is probably not that bad an outcome, assuming someone can figure out how to build in a nice personality to go with it.
I wouldn't assume that such a group would be engineered to be "awesome," unless you mean "awesome at ruling the non-metahumans with an iron fist."
Rigorous Scholarship
I find the idea of a genetic aristocracy kind of irrational.
Indeed. I could see genetic manipulation being well suited to creating a superior working class, but I can't see it being applied to create an organism better suited to rule. Unless we're theorizing activation of some pheromone that makes people submit, or splicing in Vogon DNA.
What are you, some kind of communist?
MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
If genetic manipulation will be as expensive as I imagine, then only the rich will be able to afford it for their children. Will the rich want their children to be a superior working class? No. Instead, much as they do already with private schools, tutors, etc., the rich will pay to ensure that their children are the best and the brightest. As these children grow up, they will associate with other genetically superior beings, businesses will hire them over, and they will eventually take over the highest rung of society, breeding only with those whose genetics are equal to theirs.
Bam. Genetic aristocracy.
[Edit] I guess what I'm saying is that still seems like an aristocracy based solely on money, but with No Retreat, No Surrender brand hairlines and large natural breasts instead of hair plugs and large fake breasts.
Clones
What about smarter? Even stronger and faster means future sports teams and scholarships will be made up purely of these superhumans. And like it or not, looks DO affect success. Stuff like taller people tend to have higher average income. People will think you're more competent just because you're prettier.
Getting an innate ability to reroll on the negative events table while growing up will also affect your long-term prospects.
They can also make themselves more fertile, and theoretically have kids that mature faster/less of a pain growing up.
MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
Your genetically augmented flattery has won me over, genetically smarter would definitely be trouble. I thought it seemed a little more far fetched than the rest, but it's probably equally feasible; especially coupled with the best education money can buy.
So now that I have accepted it as a feasible problem, I will offer a remedy for the common man: Black market sperm banks using DNA harvested from a shady network of barber shops, spas, and sex workers.
Alternately: The jokes on them (the Gene-Elite) when Monsanto (no doubt run, by then, by the Ultra-Gene-Elite) claims IP rights over their children and any assets they hold.