Designer Babies

Abortion, euthanasia, genetic engineering, Just War theory and other such hot topics.

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Greta
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Re: Designer Babies

Post by Greta »

Illuminating. So far we've learned that Hobbes and Dalek are a pair of idiot fucktard retard stupid fucking morons :lol: reasonable proposition.

Aside from terms of endearment, Dalek, like many, sees non-existence as equivalent to deep sleep - non awareness. So, to Dalek, matter coming into life is akin to being rudely awoken by a clattering alarm from a dreamless sleep and then seemingly pointlessly thrust into, and buffeted around by, a maelstrom before returning to the dreamless sleep.

Whatever, I don't feel qualified to give family planning advice. I expect that if people keep asking for smart kids, that might be a good thing. A predominantly intelligent electorate would not vote in troglodytes like Bush, Trump and Abbott.
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Hobbes' Choice
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Re: Designer Babies

Post by Hobbes' Choice »

Greta wrote:Illuminating. So far we've learned that Hobbes and Dalek are a pair of idiot fucktard retard stupid fucking morons :lol: reasonable proposition.

Aside from terms of endearment, Dalek, like many, sees non-existence as equivalent to deep sleep - non awareness. So, to Dalek, matter coming into life is akin to being rudely awoken by a clattering alarm from a dreamless sleep and then seemingly pointlessly thrust into, and buffeted around by, a maelstrom before returning to the dreamless sleep.

Whatever, I don't feel qualified to give family planning advice. I expect that if people keep asking for smart kids, that might be a good thing. A predominantly intelligent electorate would not vote in troglodytes like Bush, Trump and Abbott.
Thanks for your sharp analysis.
But during the fray I did have something to say on the topic before being declared a moron:

This stuff is going to happen whether you like it or not.

It will simply be done by tweaking yours, and your partner's DNA to select the stuff you want, and reject the stuff you do not. The effect will be to get the best possible son or daughter rather than leave it up to choice. It will start small with hair colour and eye colour, and the suppression of "faulty" genes or one that give rise to diseases or 'malformations'. Then it will develop to avoid obesity, flat feet, or a big nose. Soon enough other people's genes could be spliced in to improve looks, or body shape.
If you want it to be much smarter- that is going to be more difficult, as there is no gene specifically for "intelligence" (whatever that is), but even that could be enhanced with practice.
You can legislate against it only to a certain degree. And where that occurs the local jurisdiction will be at a disadvantage.
The religious nuts that resist it will be outclassed by new race of smarter humans. If you can't get it done at home because of laws in your own land, you can always get it done in a shop in some other country then come home for the birth.
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SpheresOfBalance
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Re: Designer Babies

Post by SpheresOfBalance »

Hobbes' Choice wrote:
Greta wrote:Illuminating. So far we've learned that Hobbes and Dalek are a pair of idiot fucktard retard stupid fucking morons :lol: reasonable proposition.

Aside from terms of endearment, Dalek, like many, sees non-existence as equivalent to deep sleep - non awareness. So, to Dalek, matter coming into life is akin to being rudely awoken by a clattering alarm from a dreamless sleep and then seemingly pointlessly thrust into, and buffeted around by, a maelstrom before returning to the dreamless sleep.

Whatever, I don't feel qualified to give family planning advice. I expect that if people keep asking for smart kids, that might be a good thing. A predominantly intelligent electorate would not vote in troglodytes like Bush, Trump and Abbott.
Thanks for your sharp analysis.
But during the fray I did have something to say on the topic before being declared a moron:

This stuff is going to happen whether you like it or not.

It will simply be done by tweaking yours, and your partner's DNA to select the stuff you want, and reject the stuff you do not. The effect will be to get the best possible son or daughter rather than leave it up to choice. It will start small with hair colour and eye colour, and the suppression of "faulty" genes or one that give rise to diseases or 'malformations'. Then it will develop to avoid obesity, flat feet, or a big nose. Soon enough other people's genes could be spliced in to improve looks, or body shape.
If you want it to be much smarter- that is going to be more difficult, as there is no gene specifically for "intelligence" (whatever that is), but even that could be enhanced with practice.
You can legislate against it only to a certain degree. And where that occurs the local jurisdiction will be at a disadvantage.
The religious nuts that resist it will be outclassed by new race of smarter humans. If you can't get it done at home because of laws in your own land, you can always get it done in a shop in some other country then come home for the birth.
Or the designer babies will grow up emotionless like robots, take over the world and exterminate all those that are not designer babies.
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Terrapin Station
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Re: Designer Babies

Post by Terrapin Station »

Dalek Prime wrote:Have you ever suffered?
Sure, but not suffering and rather enjoying things has far, far outweighed any suffering I've experienced.
And would you have done so if you were not created?
Obviously I'd just not exist in that case, there would be no value judgments about anything pro or con, etc.
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Terrapin Station
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Re: Designer Babies

Post by Terrapin Station »

Dalek Prime wrote:Actually, I see the POV of the never been. It's not that tough to do. You've succeeded in failing at a simple thought experiment, is all.
No the very idea of that is incoherent. There is no POV of a nonexistent.
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Terrapin Station
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Re: Designer Babies

Post by Terrapin Station »

Dalek Prime wrote:
Dalek Prime wrote:
Hobbes' Choice wrote:
That is not a POV idiot
Exactly again you total retard! Never borns don't have one!
Yet you'd just said you see that point of view.
Which is the antinatalist point! No one suffers for not being born, because there is nothing there to suffer for it!
And nothing experiences all the joys there are to experience either. So why would we prefer that?
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Lacewing
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Re: Designer Babies

Post by Lacewing »

Terrapin Station wrote:
Dalek Prime wrote:Actually, I see the POV of the never been. It's not that tough to do. You've succeeded in failing at a simple thought experiment, is all.
No the very idea of that is incoherent. There is no POV of a nonexistent.
And there is NO "never been".
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Hobbes' Choice
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Re: Designer Babies

Post by Hobbes' Choice »

SpheresOfBalance wrote: Or the designer babies will grow up emotionless like robots, take over the world and exterminate all those that are not designer babies.
I do not see the slightest reason prima facie to assert that as a real possibility.

Some dictator might try to convince parents to carry GM children with modified emotional capacity. But there is no specific gene for "emotion". Its like the substrate of all human experience. You could not remove "all emotion" any more than you could remove the hydrogen from water.
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Hobbes' Choice
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Re: Designer Babies

Post by Hobbes' Choice »

Terrapin Station wrote:
Dalek Prime wrote:Actually, I see the POV of the never been. It's not that tough to do. You've succeeded in failing at a simple thought experiment, is all.
No the very idea of that is incoherent. There is no POV of a nonexistent.
I told him that already.
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Terrapin Station
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Re: Designer Babies

Post by Terrapin Station »

Hobbes' Choice wrote:
Terrapin Station wrote:
Dalek Prime wrote:Actually, I see the POV of the never been. It's not that tough to do. You've succeeded in failing at a simple thought experiment, is all.
No the very idea of that is incoherent. There is no POV of a nonexistent.
I told him that already.
Yeah, I saw that. I just read through and reply like I'm having a conversation in real time, since that's what I'd prefer to do.
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SpheresOfBalance
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Re: Designer Babies

Post by SpheresOfBalance »

Hobbes' Choice wrote:
SpheresOfBalance wrote: Or the designer babies will grow up emotionless like robots, take over the world and exterminate all those that are not designer babies.
I do not see the slightest reason prima facie to assert that as a real possibility.

Some dictator might try to convince parents to carry GM children with modified emotional capacity. But there is no specific gene for "emotion". Its like the substrate of all human experience. You could not remove "all emotion" any more than you could remove the hydrogen from water.
Why does everyone always take what I say verbatim, not really getting the point I'm making. Which is that there may be unforeseen consequences that lends to our destruction.

HC, NO ONE CAN PREDICT THE FUTURE!! And someone calculating probabilities with regard to unknown territory is just pissing in the wind. Things pertaining to life in this case are not necessarily calculable.
Dalek Prime
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Re: Designer Babies

Post by Dalek Prime »

You know, if any of you folks bothered to go through Benatar's book, you might actually understand the argument.

Oh, and thanks for that Greta. How thoughtful.

You've all gotten rid of me. Now you can bicker about the 'big things in philosophy', and accomplish.... Nothing.

Cheers.

[quote="RickLewis"].[quote]
Thanks for the stay, Rick. Appreciated. Best wishes for the magazine.
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SpheresOfBalance
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Re: Designer Babies

Post by SpheresOfBalance »

Dalek Prime wrote:You know, if any of you folks bothered to go through Benatar's book, you might actually understand the argument.

Oh, and thanks for that Greta. How thoughtful.

You've all gotten rid of me. Now you can bicker about the 'big things in philosophy', and accomplish.... Nothing.

Cheers.
RickLewis wrote:.
Thanks for the stay, Rick. Appreciated. Best wishes for the magazine.
Hey, I didn't get rid of you; I don't roll that way; the more the merrier, I always say, despite their peculiarities.
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Hobbes' Choice
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Re: Designer Babies

Post by Hobbes' Choice »

SpheresOfBalance wrote:
Hobbes' Choice wrote:
SpheresOfBalance wrote: Or the designer babies will grow up emotionless like robots, take over the world and exterminate all those that are not designer babies.
I do not see the slightest reason prima facie to assert that as a real possibility.

Some dictator might try to convince parents to carry GM children with modified emotional capacity. But there is no specific gene for "emotion". Its like the substrate of all human experience. You could not remove "all emotion" any more than you could remove the hydrogen from water.
Why does everyone always take what I say verbatim, not really getting the point I'm making. Which is that there may be unforeseen consequences that lends to our destruction.

HC, NO ONE CAN PREDICT THE FUTURE!! And someone calculating probabilities with regard to unknown territory is just pissing in the wind. Things pertaining to life in this case are not necessarily calculable.
I'm just discussing it. Maybe this is why you are such a dick all the time???
:lol:

It just seems to me that whilst you might get psychopaths; having a completely emotionless human seems not possible, emotions being too much part of what it means to be a mammal to make this seem impossible.
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Hobbes' Choice
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Re: Designer Babies

Post by Hobbes' Choice »

Terrapin Station wrote:
Hobbes' Choice wrote:
Terrapin Station wrote:No the very idea of that is incoherent. There is no POV of a nonexistent.
I told him that already.
Yeah, I saw that. I just read through and reply like I'm having a conversation in real time, since that's what I'd prefer to do.
Me too.
NP
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