[alicebot-aiethics] translation of Hawking, oh my god what is the fuss about?

[Christopher Fahey [askROM]]

> Really? any mention of altering human dna is eugenics, and 
> therefore Nazi like?  did I understand you?

Yes. This is exactly what I mean. So far every single time we've (we=all
humanity) tried formal eugenics programs we've only ended up causing
great suffering and degrading the whole species in the process. 

Eugenics is a system where one path appears to lead to Utopia but where
the other 100,000 paths lead to disaster scenarios beyond our
imagination, such as the Holocaust or the Khmer Rouge. It's easy to
think of dozens of disaster scenarios involving the rapid adoption of
eugenic principles. Can you imagine what would happen if, for example,
we had some yardstick for measuring one human's genetic value over
another's? Einstein's gene scan would have revealed a little dyslexic
kid with no respect for authority. Charlie Parker's would have revealed
severe manic depression. 

The gap between rich and poor could quickly grow to the point where the
godlike top 1% will see the bottom 99% as worthless inferior animals.
People will choose to have nothing but tall, blonde, blue eyed kids all
the time, even if their parents were short with kinky hair and brown
eyes. People will choose to breed away their distinctive ethnic features
so we end up with a million Barbies, Kens, and Michael Jacksons. There
is not a human being on earth who I would trust to decide whose genes
are more valuable than another's.

Also, we could screw up and throw away the "flawed" gene that causes,
say, ingrown hairs and inadvertently make us all vulnerable to some
dormant disease. Do we even know enough about humanity to tinker with it
so deeply?

I for one fear that adopting eugenic programs too quickly will lead to
utter disaster - it will lead to massive discrimination, genocide,
exploitation, and ultimately the destruction of everything we treasure
about our abilities as humans. We only get one shot at this, folks.


> Okay, could you try to review your attitude. taking into 
> account the culture we NOW find ourselves in?  I mean, what 
> if WWII had never happened, would you feel differently?

Probably. If WWII never happened, ideas like genocide and eugenics might
still be seriously discussed today by major politicians. I should hope
that we have learned some lessons from that era.

Today's culture is nothing to be much faith in either. In the Balkans
ethnic cleansing is still occurring. China is executing hundreds of
people every day with the goal of purging the "criminal element" from
their gene pool. In Rwanda 500,000 people were killed in one summer in a
concerted genocide. Racism and hate exist all around the world, in our
own back yards. Are we ready to give ourselves the power to mold the
whole species? Is this the world into which we want to unleash the
ability to create a super human? I think not. We're not a whole lot
different than we were in the 1930s, but I think we're lucky to be able
to say that we've made the mistake once already. We should be on our
guard to avoid doing it again.


> Humans have been doing 'genocide' for a very long time now.  
> Isn't it time we stopped?   Isn't now a good time to view our 
> humanity as one, and fix the fatal flaws?

Is that a contradiction? Mentioning ending genocide in one breath and
advocating fixing humanity in the next? Fixing humanity is precisely the
goal of genocide. Recall that genocide is simply a type of eugenics.
It's a rather blunt eugenic instrument, but the goal is precisely the
same: to mold the gene pool to fit an "ideal" held by those in power to
decide.


> I'm a little angry that you would seek (seemingly) to remind 
> of us of why we should be fighting each other and not out 
> exploring other worlds.

I don't know what you're talking about here, but I *hope* I didn't
suggest that people should fight each other or that we shouldn't be
exploring other worlds. I don't recall mentioning either.

-Cf

[christopher eli fahey]
art: www.graphpaper.com
science: www.askROM.com