On Eugenics
If this were a single-use medical treatment, delivered by a doctor after someone got the relevant condition, it would be one of the biggest advances of the decade - imagine a drug that cures 10 - 40%17 of breast cancers with no side effects! But in fact, it works for breast cancer, and schizophrenia, and heart attacks, and approximately everything... See more
Scott Alexander • Suddenly, Trait-Based Embryo Selection
The IVF clinic of the future will combine a handful of technologies (the Gattaca stack):
1. In vitro gametogenesis (IvG) - make eggs from skin or blood cells (much less invasive)
2. Preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) - choose the embryo that best matches what you want, ideally from thousands or more... See more
Brian Armstrongx.comFrom that perspective, this is the most romantic technology of all. You’re not just giving a better life to your kids. Genes travel from generation to generation; you’re giving a better life your grandkids, your great-grandkids and so on to the point 1.77*log2(population) generations from now when you are the ancestor of everybody and nobody.... See more
Scott Alexander • Suddenly, Trait-Based Embryo Selection
On average , even if everyone in the world selected for eye color, it wouldn’t raise cancer and schizophrenia risk. No not-deliberately-perverse polygenic selection choice can make your child worse off in expectation. Still, suppose you got cancer, and your mom admitted that she selected you for pretty eyes and didn’t even check the cancer column... See more
Scott Alexander • Suddenly, Trait-Based Embryo Selection
Society Is Fixed, Biology Is Mutable
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