[ExI] 'Survival of the fittest' ??

[SR Ballard]

Do I want to participate in a eugenics program? No thanks. They’d just target people who are socially undesirable (poor, wrong religion, wrong ethnicity) rather than those who are genetically undesirable.

Rather than that, better access to genetic testing, sex education in schools, and ease of achieving sterilization (very difficult for women). Encouraging doctors to explain that a certain condition will likely be inherited by children.

SR Ballard

> On Jan 11, 2020, at 12:56 PM, William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> 
> 
>  SR Ballard> wrote:
>> I’m sorry, but some people are genetically unfit to have children. 
> 
> Yeah?  Agreed.  So what do you want to do about it?  Give governments a say in who is born?
> 
> bill w
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  
>> For example: Fatal familial insomnia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_insomnia
>> 
>> Unless/until their are treatments, knowingly dooming your children to die as you have died, miserably, is very cruel.
>> 
>> SR Ballard
>> 
>>> On Jan 11, 2020, at 8:27 AM, BillK via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> On Sat, 11 Jan 2020 at 07:16, Rafal Smigrodzki via extropy-chat
>>> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>>> ### Well, yes - real libertarianism is "live and let live", and this also implies "live and let die".
>>>> I am not my brother's keeper. Removal of legal sanctions for using and selling dangerous drugs
>>>> would certainly facilitate infliction of self-harm, and some people who are too timid to use drugs
>>>> now might become victims of their own stupidity - well, so what? We may offer good advice in
>>>> the spirit of the good Samaritan but if this advice is not heeded, I do not feel guilty for whatever
>>>> happens. The only situation where this does not apply is of course children and other wards
>>>> but that's a different story.
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>> 
>>> This interpretation is based on the now discredited Social Darwinism
>>> belief system.
>>> <https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/social-darwinism>
>>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism>
>>> 
>>> Quotes:
>>> Social Darwinists believe in “survival of the fittest”—the idea that
>>> certain people become powerful in society because they are innately
>>> better. Social Darwinism has been used to justify imperialism, racism,
>>> eugenics and social inequality at various times over the past century
>>> and a half.
>>> ----------
>>> Darwin rarely commented on the social implications of his theories.
>>> But to those who followed Spencer and Malthus, Darwin’s theory
>>> appeared to be confirming with science what they already believed to
>>> be true about human society—that the fit inherited qualities such as
>>> industriousness and the ability to accumulate wealth, while the unfit
>>> were innately lazy and stupid.
>>> 
>>> Unlike Darwin, Spencer believed that people could genetically pass
>>> learned qualities, such as frugality and morality, on to their
>>> children.
>>> Spencer opposed any laws that helped workers, the poor, and those he
>>> deemed genetically weak. Such laws, he argued, would go against the
>>> evolution of civilization by delaying the extinction of the “unfit.”
>>> ----------
>>> Eugenics became a popular social movement in the United States that
>>> peaked in the 1920s and 1930s. Books and films promoted eugenics,
>>> while local fairs and exhibitions held “fitter family” and “better
>>> baby” competitions around the country.
>>> The eugenics movement in the United States focused on eliminating
>>> undesirable traits from the population. Proponents of the eugenics
>>> movement reasoned the best way to do this was by preventing “unfit”
>>> individuals from having children.
>>> During the first part of the twentieth century, 32 U.S. states passed
>>> laws that resulted in the forced sterilization of more than 64,000
>>> Americans including immigrants, people of color, unmarried mothers and
>>> the mentally ill.
>>> ----------------------------------------
>>> 
>>> On the other hand, many great human projects involved large numbers of
>>> humans working together, assisting each other in tasks which required
>>> many different levels of ability and experience.
>>> 
>>> BillK
>>> 
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