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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2013-10-27 18:19, Kelly Anderson
wrote:<br>
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cite="mid:CAPy8RwYT6cLyF-Fv5Mk+JFa5W4ooV0c5fnkpu46E2MMvSnM6OQ@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">On Thu, Oct 24, 2013 at 4:43 AM, Anders Sandberg <span
dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:anders@aleph.se" target="_blank">anders@aleph.se</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
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<div class="im"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34)">Note
that you would need to pay *a lot*. The below 1 SD
population is around 15%, so in the US that would be
about 47 million people you need to pay off. I am not
sure what the going price for getting sterilized is,
but at least I expect it to be on the order of a few
thousand dollars - we are easily talking hundreds of
billions here. Not quite as much as is already spent
on elementary schools, but still a lot.</span></div>
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<div>There is a successful private endeavor to sterilize
female drug addicts for as little as $300.</div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.projectprevention.org/">http://www.projectprevention.org</a><br>
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<div><br>
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<div>Unfortunately, low IQ apparently is negatively
correlated with drug use. At least in one study.</div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.ibtimes.com/smart-people-illegal-drugs-intelligent-people-dont-always-do-right-thing-371056">http://www.ibtimes.com/smart-people-illegal-drugs-intelligent-people-dont-always-do-right-thing-371056</a><br>
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<br>
Well, as a drug user with decent IQ ( <a
href="http://news.sky.com/story/1147488/smart-drug-modafinil-risks-student-health">http://news.sky.com/story/1147488/smart-drug-modafinil-risks-student-health</a>
) I don't feel much desire to be sterilized. But then again, my
likelihood of getting an offspring is pretty microscopic. <br>
<br>
"As of 7 October 2011 the organization had paid 3,848 clients." -
that tells me they likely do not have the right price. Looking at <a
href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/drug-misuse-findings-from-the-2012-to-2013-csew/drug-misuse-findings-from-the-2012-to-2013-crime-survey-for-england-and-wales">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/drug-misuse-findings-from-the-2012-to-2013-csew/drug-misuse-findings-from-the-2012-to-2013-crime-survey-for-england-and-wales</a>
it seems that a few percent of the population are drug users (2.8%
adults are 'frequent drug users'). So of the around 1,457,735
frequent drug users only 0.26% had taken up the offer. More than I
expected, actually, but still tiny. <br>
<br>
Still, there is something relevant with that project: it looks at a
phenotype that - at the very least through phenotypical effects -
has a good chance of reducing the life quality of children. One
could just as well imagine similar project paying other
statistically bad parents - say people with personality disorders or
criminal lifestyles - to not have children*. This would be good for
the average child (since the chance of having a nice parent goes
up), and indirectly maybe have some gene pool effect. But the moral
argument for this largely hinges on the direct effect on the
children, rather than caring for the gene pool. <br>
<br>
The gene pool is in my opinion only instrumentally valuable as
something that generates something truly valuable: good human lives.
If we could get equally good lives by compiling DNA strings or
voodoo invocations, there would not be any particular reason to keep
the gene pool. This is why I am sceptical of interventions that seem
to serve "the species" more than individual members.<br>
<br>
<br>
[* Of course, when you start thinking about parent group membership
correlating with bad childhoods a lot of the results are pretty
unpalatable. Very fun to string people along and see how far they
are willing to go - what about poor people? immigrants? parents with
bad food habits? the wrong religion? ]<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University
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