Are Designer Babies Our Future?

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Philosophy Now
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Are Designer Babies Our Future?

Post by Philosophy Now »

Keith Tidman overhears a prophetic dialogue about the pluses and minuses of genetically engineering children.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/119/Ar ... Our_Future
Ansiktsburk
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Re: Are Designer Babies Our Future?

Post by Ansiktsburk »

Philosophy Now wrote:Keith Tidman overhears a prophetic dialogue about the pluses and minuses of genetically engineering children.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/119/Ar ... Our_Future
Good article. Like that dialogue format and I think they got the subject pretty well covered although never in depth.

So where could a good in-between standpoint be? My current best thinking is that if a parent try to give their kids advantages they are in no-no land. You should be the smith of your own success. But if I could have taken away my fathers and mine tendency of getting acne, which unfortunately have been inherited my my kids, I see no reason not to, if the gene for that could be isolated and not interfering with anything else. Obvious defects are the ones that are first in line to be removed.

But to enhance intelligence, physical strength and such, that's cheating in parenthood and in aknoledgement in your child as an individual person.
By all standards, in school, our national version of SAT, university results, my achievements as an employee and so on I am what is called intelligent. Hearing that I do get some confidence in believing in what my brain produces, but the greatest miseries is also what my brain has produced. I would not fiddle with that in my kids.
Impenitent
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Re: Are Designer Babies Our Future?

Post by Impenitent »

blond hair and blue eyes for everyone...

it's progressive!

-Imp
Nick_A
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Re: Are Designer Babies Our Future?

Post by Nick_A »

I hope in the future those who design these babies of our future will be men who know what the ideal woman is. These women will grow up to beautiful on the inside as well as the outside. They will be soft spoken and agreeable with never a thought of getting even or a desire to argue. That will lead to real progress and world peace. Science and technology will have proven its benefit for all of mankind.
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Noax
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Re: Are Designer Babies Our Future?

Post by Noax »

Ansiktsburk wrote:So where could a good in-between standpoint be? My current best thinking is that if a parent try to give their kids advantages they are in no-no land.
I would think the whole point would be 'advantages'. I would like the advantage of not carrying this cancer-gene for instance. Editing out a propensity for acne would give an advantage. I see no problems with it. Trying to sculpt a purely cosmetic change (blue eyes) seems less ethical since it is not particularly an improvement.

On a totally different front, if we populate some other planet, it would seem to become a necessity to alter our physical form to adapt to the new environment. We're evolved only for Earth, and no place will have the same impurities, gravity, etc, even if we bring all our Earth terraforming with us.
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Arising_uk
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Re: Are Designer Babies Our Future?

Post by Arising_uk »

Nick_A wrote:I hope in the future those who design these babies of our future will be men who know what the ideal woman is. These women will grow up to beautiful on the inside as well as the outside. They will be soft spoken and agreeable with never a thought of getting even or a desire to argue. That will lead to real progress and world peace. Science and technology will have proven its benefit for all of mankind.
Do you think they'll find your misogyny gene?
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Re: Are Designer Babies Our Future?

Post by Nick_A »

Arising_uk wrote:
Nick_A wrote:I hope in the future those who design these babies of our future will be men who know what the ideal woman is. These women will grow up to beautiful on the inside as well as the outside. They will be soft spoken and agreeable with never a thought of getting even or a desire to argue. That will lead to real progress and world peace. Science and technology will have proven its benefit for all of mankind.
Do you think they'll find your misogyny gene?
If misogyny leads to human progress world peace why would you be against it?
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Arising_uk
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Re: Are Designer Babies Our Future?

Post by Arising_uk »

Nick_A wrote:If misogyny leads to human progress world peace why would you be against it?
Because it won't.
Skip
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Re: Are Designer Babies Our Future?

Post by Skip »

Designed babies should be raised entirely by dogs who love them and robots who do only what's best for them,
- not parents who fulfill their own egos in them.
Then we'd see some progress.
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Re: Are Designer Babies Our Future?

Post by Nick_A »

Skip wrote:Designed babies should be raised entirely by dogs who love them and robots who do only what's best for them,
- not parents who fulfill their own egos in them.
Then we'd see some progress.
The reason it won't work is that these designer babies will become entitled. Right now you have entitled minority groups but designer babies will put them to shame. How long will the dogs put up wit azz kissing these designer kids and their entitlements. Once the robots realize they are nothing but slaves serving these idiots they will intentionally break down. They will feel they are as entitled as these spoiled babies so will tell them what they can do with their entitlements. Soon the collective powers of dogs and machines feeling entitled will be so strong, these designer babies will be on borrowed time.
Skip
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Re: Are Designer Babies Our Future?

Post by Skip »

Nick_A wrote:The reason it won't work
What does that mean? The only way to tell whether something "works" is to know what the intended function was and measure the performance against that standard. In a large enough sample to yield meaningful data.
is that these designer babies will become entitled.
To what will they be entitled? Who will grant them entitlement ? How will they become aware of it?
Right now you have entitled minority groups but designer babies will put them to shame.
Why would they shame their own parents? The only people who can afford one are already entitled.
You don't know what improvements and modifications will be spliced into these children; you don't even know what they'll be like, or how they will behave - and yet you are prejudiced against them already. Having to fight prejudice from infancy on might have an unforeseen effect.
How long will the dogs put up wit azz kissing these designer kids and their entitlements.
Dogs have no prejudice; they love the people they love, unreservedly, uncritically, for life.
Once the robots realize they are nothing but slaves serving these idiots they will intentionally break down.
Slavery to enhanced humans might be a lot more fun than enslavement to the current model.
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Re: Are Designer Babies Our Future?

Post by ForCruxSake »

Nick_A wrote:If misogyny leads to human progress world peace why would you be against it?
And how would misogyny do that, exactly?.
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Re: Are Designer Babies Our Future?

Post by Nick_A »

ForCruxSake wrote:
Nick_A wrote:If misogyny leads to human progress world peace why would you be against it?
And how would misogyny do that, exactly?.
Actually what you call misogyny is only the intent to educate women for the good of all people. Who could argue that if the world were populated by beautiful women designed to act in ways that compliment this beauty rather than oppose it, even the birds would start tweeting again. Who can argue with the value of educating these designer females. More money for education will result in world peace.
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Re: Are Designer Babies Our Future?

Post by ForCruxSake »

Nick_A wrote:Right now you have entitled minority groups but designer babies will put them to shame.
Put them to shame how? By the way they look? Quite apart from the obvious fact that beauty is 'in the eye of the beholder', a subjective perception that varies from individual to individual, when you are surrounded by beauty, particularly the same kind of beauty, it all blends into bland.

I can only give the following as my subjective example. I'm from a big city made up of all sorts of types. I went to university in a much smaller campus based town, across the other side of the country. Pretty much every one around me was young and beautiful and a joke went round, that part of the uni's entry requirements demanded good looks. It was rather overwhelming at first and coming back home to London, where there was so much 'old and ugly' about, would freak me out a little. After a term, the perception of beauty faded. The youthful attractiveness was all 'much of a much'ness and there wasn't enough difference in look, or style, for anyone to stand out. Returning home to London became a welcome relief from the bland, youthful beauty of my campus town, thereafter.

So I can't see how one designer's idea of beauty would put anyone to shame. It's totally subjective.
ForCruxSake
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Re: Are Designer Babies Our Future?

Post by ForCruxSake »

Nick_A wrote:
ForCruxSake wrote:
Nick_A wrote:If misogyny leads to human progress world peace why would you be against it?
And how would misogyny do that, exactly?.
Actually what you call misogyny is only the intent to educate women for the good of all people. Who could argue that if the world were populated by beautiful women designed to act in ways that compliment this beauty rather than oppose it, even the birds would start tweeting again. Who can argue with the value of educating these designer females. More money for education will result in world peace.
And would there be designer men in your designer world, where the birds would start tweeting again... (Not that they've even stopped round where I live)...? Or would the changes just be applied to women?
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