Natural Selection
It’s a little weird the way that natural selection has evolved. It used to be “survival of fittest” and those that could not find their own food or fend for themselves would die. Now that’s not as much as an issue but the natural selection still occurs in other ways. Single women are selecting sperm to have children from online databases, selecting the ones with the best test scores, athleticism, etc (New York Times: “Wanted: A Few Good Sperm”). People are already genetically screening their children and not having any that have significant diseases (New York Times: “A Wrongful Birth?”). Soon people will probably be genetically engineering their children to be more perfect before they are born.
At some point in this chain we have to have gone too far, right?
March 29th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
Todd, Long time no see/talk. Don’t be silly…instead of nature, money is going to select! Woohoo! I mean, if you can afford to give your child the best in genetics, then why not right? Although, then there is the pesky issue of nature vs. nuture. At least it would be interesting to see the impact that enviroment has on development and genetic expression.
So you’re in Boston huh? What type of research do you do? So far, grad school is fun and I’m not getting kicked out, so w00t. Although, I have to move to Illinois in September…
I hope all is well…and you have some pretty interesting thoughts and opinions.
:)
~jackie
March 30th, 2006 at 10:14 am
hey jackie,
i suppose you’re right, only the people with money will be able to afford genetically engineered kids.
i’m doing research at spaulding hospital on wearable sensors, but i’m going to start grad school in the fall at the university of texas in austin, getting my phd in artificial intelligence.
later,
Todd