[ExI] Atlantic article on human reengineering with very strong reactions

[spike]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of BillK
Subject: Re: [ExI] Atlantic article on human reengineering with very strong
reactions

On 2012/3/13 spike scribbled furiously:

>> ...The notion isn’t to modify our DNA directly, but rather modify our 
> sexual desires, so that we are attracted to smaller people.  Then the 
> DNA modification happens by mate selection.

>...Sooooo, for you there is no more tall blonde blue-eyed Swedish females
with legs all the way up to their shoulders?????  BillK

_______________________________________________

No, for me and for my son, already born, there is no changing what has
already happened.  But perhaps my grandchildren may be genetically modified
to be sexually attracted to the smallest members in their clade.  It should
be no surprise we would go for tall blue eyed Swedish girls: both I and my
son (and my wife) are a quarter Swedish.  But it can be easily imagined that
humans are currently near the high end of our scale with our current design:
we are nearly as big as we can get.  Recall that the heart receives its
oxygen from its surface, and the surface area scales as the square of the
linear dimension, whereas its workload scales approximately as the fourth
power of the linear dimension.  Really tall people die young of heart
failure.

We can scale humans downward, for we know there are humans smaller than
typical humans today, the Bayaka and Bambenga people of Africa for instance.

We also know that attitudes and outlooks, while usually thought to be
entirely learned behaviors, do have some genetic component, this being
incompletely understood.  So perhaps the key to humankind being more in tune
with nature and Earth-friendly is to give birth to more people who have the
genetic makeup which would compel them to have fewer children.  Those with
the genetic and memetic makeup which compels them to have more children
would then merely need to have fewer children, and those with the genetic
and memetic makeup which compels them to have fewer children must be
encouraged to breed more.

Problem solved.

spike