A collection of 28 posts
My mother could always sense the difference, the alienation, between me and my father. It’s not that we didn’t get along. It’s just that there was almost nothing there—nothing in common. He was American football, girls, tailgating, hunting, the Air Force, that one story about being
The truth is we can never hope for a perfect alignment between moral desert and material reward because we each have competing definitions of what constitutes merit.
The scientific idea that one’s genes affect one’s life outcomes isn’t novel.
Hope had been expressed during the early part of this century that DNA testing might be used to identify individuals with exceptional athletic ability.
Day by day, as genetic science advances, it becomes ever clearer that all psychological traits are genetically influenced.
The sordid and shameful history of eugenics in the U.S. should be better known, as should the role of another prominent American institution that was central to the development of eugenics ideology.
Instead of using the label “eugenics” to discredit advocates of genetic enhancement, it would be more productive to ask what precisely we deem unacceptable and why.
Are genetic castes inevitable?
Those scientists who want to draw attention to the racial bias in genetic research but who don’t want to acknowledge the scientific validity of race are in a tricky position.
Plomin tries to present this cascade of new information about the genetic influence on human behavior in a way that will positively affect human behavior – but his own work suggests the impact of such arguments will be limited.
One consequence of these genetic battles is the effect on reproductive compatibility within a species.
If the critics are correct that human enhancement is unethical, dangerous or both, then yes, emergence in China would be worrying.