Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site looking.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Breeding of Humans
Message-ID: <120@looking.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 18-Dec-83 00:00:00 EST
Article-I.D.: looking.120
Posted: Sun Dec 18 00:00:00 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 19-Dec-83 00:25:58 EST
References: <1128@rocksvax.UUCP>
Organization: Looking Glass Software, Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 20

As interesting as the results might be, there is one problem with
the whole idea of selective human breeding.  This problem is demonstrated
in rocksvax.1128 when the author suggests some traits he thinks we should
breed for/against.

How can we ever be sure what to breed for?  Every person and every society
has different views on what is good.  Hitler, to flog a dead horse, would
have designed a program to produce ideal Nazis.  The "Moral Majority" might
want people more prone to becoming "good Christians."  Certain Arabs might
want women who were more docile.   All these views are considered true and
right by the people who hold them.  I hope that we have only one piece of
wisdom : the knowledge that we aren't sure about any of our moral values.

Much SF has been written on such subjects, some good, some bad, but it
brings up these issues.

By breeding for what we think is good, we reduce the chances of finding
something new that is even better.
-- 
	Brad Templeton - Waterloo, Ontario (519) 886-7304