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hyperbad
@hyperbad
still don’t know what i think about embryo selection and optimization. randomness and variance are important for a species. genetics have correlates. if link between high IQ and depression is real what good is having a smart kid if he’s dead? extraversion plays more significant role in success, etc
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ted (not lasso)
@ted
as someone who studied genetics, understand the concern around embryo selection / optimizing being a slippery slope where today's its health and tomorrow it'll be IQ and then it'll be athleticism. choosing an embryo less likely to develop a debilitating or life altering disease isn't the same as engineering the perfect child. parents already make choices about health: prenatal health, avoiding birth complications via surrogacy, etc. most embryo selection and optimization companies simply provide more information to make an informed decision; they provide probabilistic risk scores, not deterministic ones. people who use these companies are not designing children, but lowering the odds of common diseases. if given the option between high risk of depression/suicide or a bit lower IQ, i bet most parents would choose lower IQ. most genetic companies admit their tools can't (and shouldn't) be used for non-medical trait selection. goal for these tools is to reduce suffering, not select perfection imo.
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hyperbad
@hyperbad
yes will first be leveraged for acute conditions like congenital defects and disease then slippery slope to optimization and enhancement, etc as most biotech goes value judgment doesn’t matter, what we can do through tech we will. am wondering if sacrificing randomness will prove to be net worse for our species
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ted (not lasso)
@ted
"as most biotech goes" we've had preimplantation genetic diagnosis since the 1990s and 3 decades later we still haven't normalized the same for intelligence, height, eye color, etc. in fact, selecting for traits is mostly considered ethically off-limits and it's even legally prohibited in Canada, UK, and most of EU. also there is no scientific foundation for trait selection to work well lol polygenic scores for traits are insanely noisy and influenced by gene-environment interactions more than DNA.
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hyperbad
@hyperbad
just wait :)
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