Monday, April 13, 2009
Creating a Super-Human Race
Now, for a moment lets consider the possibility that even so evolution cannot be controlled, we can "push" and "nudge" it in the right direction, or whatever direction we would like it to go. For a second lets forget about past failed attempts at this, with Hitler and his Genocides, and take a more sane approach to the topic. Say the U.S. government funds an island, say, Super-Human Island, (SHI for short), where they take the people with the best traits in the U.S. and just fund their living standards and have them reproduce. This way they can pass their favorable genes down to their offspring. Now this is not so insane; we after all fund universities where only the smarter of us can get it in. You don't see many "red-necks" who do not know basic algebra hanging out Harvard, and not too many critics are yelling how horrible Harvard is for not letting in the "stupider" of us. Now back to SHI. Say on the island there were "intelligence" and "strength" requirements needed to be maintained to remain on the island, and all people who did not manage to meet these requirements were simply politely asked to leave the island and live with the rest of the "normies". In this sense, by "creating" evolutionary pressures, only the smartest and strongest would survive and pass down their genes by mating with other smart and strong people, and over time should in theory create a "super-race". By using facts from the book and your own knowledge, give an opinion on why this would or wouldn't work, and your own opinions if there is any benefeit for creating such a program.
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In manipulating the selection pressures on the people of island SHI, evolution could be successfully guided. We have successfully enacted such methods many times by successfully breading animals in such a way as to produce desired breeds. Domestication itself shows the speed and power of artificial selection. We were able to in perhaps 20,000 years, negligible in geological time, able to generate breeds like Chihuahuas from wolves; all this while we have not noticeable evolved at all over those 20,000 years. As Carroll states many times in his book accumulative changes in design can lead to vast changes over a relatively short period of time. Indeed, if a selectivity index of .1 can lead trait to increase in frequency from representing less than 1% of a population to representing 90% in simply 300 generations, a selectivity index of 1.0 present on SHI Island will cut the time down to just 30 generations. However, this guided evolution might not create super people because we have yet to properly define intelligence. Essentially, the traits we apply selection pressures to might not create super geniuses. For example, if IQ tests were used to decide who was smart enough to stay on SHI, then we would witness the development of a people who poses the right mental faculties or type of intelligence to score high on IQ tests; however these people might not be smart concerning mental processes fundamentally different than those used to ace IQ tests. The devil lies in the details and the major issue with SHI Island becomes diagnostics. How would we specify the right traits we should apply natural selection pressures on?
ReplyDeleteEthically this ‘experiment’ is essentially relegating people to the status of domestic animals. However, if carried out with the subjects’ permission it would not be morally incorrect in a society which values freedom of choice
First of all, I don't think it is entirely correct to state that we already have a form of what you suggest in funding exclusive universities like Harvard, because Harvard is not a closed-off society, and most attendees (hopefully) are not reproducing there.
ReplyDeleteIn theory, the situation you describe would indeed work. It would not create a "super-race," because it would not provide the descendents with genes for supernatural powers. What the SHI would do is select for the best traits among us, like strength. By breeding only individuals with the best traits, we would be able to ensure that the descendents would all have the best traits, with very few flaws. As Vikram pointed out, we already employ a similar tactic in breeding domesticated animals, such as breeding the fattest livestock, the fastest racehorses, and the "purest" breeds of dogs.
However, from a practical standpoint, it would not work. It would not work because we would be underestimating the human factor. We are not livestock, and humans would not simply go along with the program. Many of the "normal" people would protest the ethics of this. In addition, humans do not just reproduce with anyone nearby. humans are highly selective with their mates, and some of the people on the SHI would want to mate with a "normal" person rather than another SHI-ite (no, this is not a religious reference). Vikram stated that it would be morally acceptable if the project was carried out with the approval of the subjects. However, Vikram, despite his unquestioned proficiency in philosophical thought, seems to have overlooked the future generations. While the original participants may have agreed to such an experiment, future generations from that experiment may not want to be in it. This may create a feeling of a trapped society, with many descendants wanting to leave. This could lead to riots, which would lead to either a dismantling of the program as the people choose to leave, or a brutal repression of their freedom of choice in violently forcing them to remain. finally, this experiment would not be able to run on a large enough scale to affect the human population as a whole without widespread ethnic cleansing. Therefore, this plan is not feasible.
Going off of what Vik said (about the 20,000 years for wolves to Chihuahuas), humans have actively led evolution in a certain direction. For example, a Science Daily report states that "A new study on pigs reveals that the prime explanation for this phenomenon is that humans have actively changed the coat colour of domestic animals by cherry-picking and actively selecting for rare mutations and that this process that has been going on for thousands of years."
ReplyDelete(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090116073327.htm)
During the genetic unit, Ms. I. gave an example with a certain species (i think it was some sort of livestock, but i'll use mice). If a white-colored mouse was the preferred color, then humans could intervene with reproduction by mating only white-colored mice. If any non-white-colored mice were produced, they were not allowed to reproduce. This taking out of any non-white mice would eventually lead to a population of all white mice. So why wouldn't the same process apply to humans? But going off of what Vik said later in his response, intelligence is measured in numerous ways. Emotional intelligence, "street smarts", artistic intelligence, academic intelligence, etc. etc. Not only do genes have something to do with intelligence, but also very specific and minute selective pressures. For example- if a girl has parents who played piano plus there is a piano sitting in her house and she decided to take piano lessons, then there is a good chance the girl would become "musically intelligent". There are countless ways to determine what a "superhuman" would be and to create "superhumans" would take so many years that the world would probably end before a population of superhumans would be created. (okay, maybe not that drastic, but you get the idea). Plus, since humans don't reproduce until they are at least around the age of 16, creating superhumans by kicking out unsuitable offsprings would extend the process even longer. Basically, humans are a poor subject to use for genetic manipulation.
Ethically, the idea of creating superhumans is up for debate. I personally believe that making the whole world a superhuman would make the world an utterly boring place. Plus, technically, if everyone was a superhuman, then humans wouldn't be superhumans any more.
While incredibly difficult, selective breeding of humans could possibly result in super-humans. However, this isn't as easy as pairing up very athletic, smart people. Reproduction only goes as far as genes, and intelligence and strength are mostly dependent on environmental factors. A person with "smarter" genes won't be very smart without an education...
ReplyDeleteThis time article (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,991939,00.html) argues that there are in fact genes that do affect "intelligence," but our physical fitness and intelligence is still almost entirely dependent on our own actions. Raising a population of superhumans firstly requires that all of them exercise and be educated to their maximum capabilities.
Mutations in the genetic code can potentially aid in the creation of superhumans. The MYH16 gene that helps form large muscle fibers is fossilized in humans, but could potentially "reawaken," allowing us to use that particular human to raise superhumans. This process would take a very long time though. From Carroll's example of pigmentation in mice (p. 59-64) shows that the mice take thousands of years to evolve different colors. Thus, we can assume that waiting for an ideal mutation could take thousands of years.
Vikram mentioned the subjectivity of intelligence, but identifying genes is easily much more difficult. How can we determine if one person has better genes than another? Thus, raising superhumans is possible, but could take thousands of years to just identify some people with "better" genes.
Firstly, I would like to bring to mind the fact that this same idea was being toyed with by the Nazi regime in Germany, so we must tread lightly on this topic...
ReplyDeleteThe cultivation of a superhuman race is very feasable because, like every other organism, humans respond to selective pressures. The only problem that this immoral experiment might run into is the problem of genetic inbreeding within the presumably small population. The low genetic diversity (if we presumably pick the few already strong and smart individuals to breed) would possibly cause many errors resulting in deformed children. Also, at what point does a species become "super"? Are we not superhuman already? Have we not conquered the Earth? In my opinion, such an experiment is ridiculous and unnecessary.