oh great, commercial eugenics
We knew it was bound to happen sometime with capitalism
Better than traditional genocidal eugenics.
(psst. hey buddy. all eugenics is genocidal. It’s in the fucking name. Also. racism and fascism have historically been sanitised and presented as scientific or commercial endeavours. They’re the cornerstones of capitalism. Think of how the weapons industry is printing money because of israel’s decades long genocide against the palestinians.)
how about we aim for no eugenics, not just the least objectionable sort
there is no unobjectionable eugenics
"Given these three steps, what's the logical fourth one?"
"..."
"God this embryo is an idiot."
Doesn’t even know the basic strats for these pattern questions, SMH, Do You Even IQ Test? (trying to start DYEIQT)
Good luck having an embryo pass an iq test. Most of them can't even read.
Legitimately though, it's a nonsensical metric to screen on.
The thing with IVF is that it's already incredibly weirdly eugenicist.
Like, read some of the parameters they'd screen you for if you wanted to donate sperm. You get bonus points for having a PhD? I'm sorry? You're looking for a better-educated sperm?
And when you apply for IVF and choose a donor you get their education and job. "I want my cum to be a pilot!" The fuck.
Lamarckian eugenics!
I didn't understand how the hell the "pro-life" crowd would cheer for IVF since it entails destroying plenty of embryos. Now I understand: it's the opportunity for some good old fashioned eugenics.
They’re not cheering. Evangelical anti-abortion activists have long targeted IVF and it’s been practically banned in at least one US state.
Some days ago Trump came out saying he loves IVF and he's the "father of IVF" so I assumed the evangelicals are at least OK with it, considering how the Republican are extremely close with them.
He will say what he thinks needs to be said, and the forced-birthers understand this. They haven’t defeated abortion yet and aren’t going to split their efforts, but they will continue to put pressure on ivf in the meantime. Remember, they weren’t always anti-abortion, and didn’t switch to it overnight! Their current position that life begins at conception necessarily conflicts with current ivf practises, and they’ll say they don’t disapprove of ivf in principle, and they might even have a friend who’s getting ivf, but talk is cheap and they’ll absolutely oppose any legislation that tries to guarantee access to it. Which is precisely what is happening.
Trump has absolutely no principles or beliefs other than those that profit him.
Reminds me of how marriage advice has its roots in white supremacy. (CW: a lot. self harm, SA, abuse)
I would definitely hate to be burdened with an IQ. Such a terrible thing to be born with
Only if burdened with emotional intermittence, as well.
GATTICA! GATTICA! GATTICA!
GATTACATS would be the most cursed musical possible and every day I give thanks that we live in a world where it doesn't exist.
Won't one crucial difference be that Gattaca's genetic selection actually worked? This will be a techbro "move fast and break things" con job.
Scott Alexander pokes his head up out of the astroturf and whispers, "It's showtime."
Gross, but I'm not shocked. IVF and prenatal genetics screening is big business, it was really only a matter of time until someone tried pulling this. As much as it shouldn't be the case, the 'line must go up' edict holds in the medical business too. I know some large lab services companies that are likely watching groups like this with great interest (but letting them take the risks first, which is smart because this is a con).
My hope is that someone squashes this and we keep screening limited to risks for severe developmental disorders (which, even still, is at least a little ethically problematic) and conditions that lower the probability of the pregnancy coming to term. But we'll see - there's gold in dem der embryos.
Edit: Read the original investigative article. Modern Nazis are reportedly involved. Again, gross, but not shocked. https://investigations.hopenothate.org.uk/superbaby-factory/
Would love to see further independent verification from a non-activism-focused source (to be clear, I am not saying the investigators are being irresponsible in their reporting), but the way newsroom budgets have been slashed these days, it's really only outlets like this doing actual, old school investigative work.
If I only have about fifty embryos, can I pay $50k to have them scanned now and have another 50 embryo scans left on my account or do I have to have all of them on hand immediately?
training your sperm to pass raven's progressive matrices
At least corvids are smart. Better that than some birdbrain's progressive matrices.
I actually read a Red Dwarf fanfic about this once where Rimmer's parents had paid for embryo selection to make sure all their kids had high IQs and good genes because they wanted to make sure they all got into the Space Corps
TechTakes
Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.
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