> we do very little to try to steer the reproductive outcome / health of our own species. [...] we do almost nothing to ensure a positive genetic future for ourselves.
Yeah, we probably don't want to try that. The genetic health of a species can basically be defined by its genetic diversity. That aggressive breeding of domestic animals and plants leads them to be really vulnerable to disease or parasites. Any attempt to exert "control" of our genetic future is likely to reduce our genetic diversity, not expand it.
One of the great things about modern medicine is that it allows people with some genetic variations that would have killed them in earlier times, to live productive lives today. And one of those variations might be the key to surviving (or even curing) some future disease that could otherwise devastate humanity.
Also, as PZ Myers recently pointed out, when it comes to genetics everything is so intertwined and interdependent that we can't really know how things are going to turn out, and the law of unintended consequences is pretty much guaranteed to lead to catastrophe.
"It seems to me, rather, that it shows that you can’t decide ahead of time what traits are desirable, but that they have to emerge organically in concert with other properties of the organism"[0]
Yeah, we probably don't want to try that. The genetic health of a species can basically be defined by its genetic diversity. That aggressive breeding of domestic animals and plants leads them to be really vulnerable to disease or parasites. Any attempt to exert "control" of our genetic future is likely to reduce our genetic diversity, not expand it.
One of the great things about modern medicine is that it allows people with some genetic variations that would have killed them in earlier times, to live productive lives today. And one of those variations might be the key to surviving (or even curing) some future disease that could otherwise devastate humanity.
Also, as PZ Myers recently pointed out, when it comes to genetics everything is so intertwined and interdependent that we can't really know how things are going to turn out, and the law of unintended consequences is pretty much guaranteed to lead to catastrophe.
"It seems to me, rather, that it shows that you can’t decide ahead of time what traits are desirable, but that they have to emerge organically in concert with other properties of the organism"[0]
[0] http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2016/07/12/how-eugeni...