Dukasaur wrote:mrswdk wrote:In America, the quagmires of religion and moral fascism mean that the average citizen remains trapped under an inflexible and draconian legal system, where freedom can only be exercised if society does not deem your freedom to be too 'yucky'. In China, people of
all orientations are given the 'right to choose' and science has positioned itself behind them, helping provide couples (including incestuous couples) with the means to safely and efficiently procreate.
It’s not exactly news that China is setting itself up as a new global superpower, is it? While Western civilization chokes on its own gluttony like a latter-day Marlon Brando, China continues to buy up American debt and lock away the world’s natural resources. But now, not content to simply laugh and make jerk-off signs as they pass us on the geopolitical highway, they’ve also developed a state-endorsed genetic-engineering project.
At BGI Shenzhen, scientists have collected DNA samples from 2,000 of the world’s smartest people and are sequencing their entire genomes in an attempt to identify the alleles which determine human intelligence. Apparently they’re not far from finding them, and when they do, embryo screening will allow parents to pick their brightest zygote and potentially bump up every generation's intelligence by five to 15 IQ points. Within a couple of generations, competing with the Chinese on an intellectual level will be like challenging Lena Dunham to a getting-naked-on-TV contest.
Shit. How does Western research in genetics compare to China’s?
We’re pretty far behind. We have the same technical capabilities, the same statistical capabilities to analyze the data, but they’re collecting the data on a much larger scale and seem to be capable of transforming the scientific findings into government policy and consumer genetic testing much more easily than we are. Technically and scientifically we could be doing this, but we’re not.
Why not?
We have ideological biases that say, “Well, this could be troubling, we shouldn’t be meddling with nature, we shouldn’t be meddling with God.” I just attended a debate in New York a few weeks ago about whether or not we should outlaw genetic engineering in babies and the audience was pretty split. In China, 95 percent of an audience would say, “Obviously you should make babies genetically healthier, happier, and brighter!” There’s a big cultural difference.
http://www.vice.com/read/chinas-taking- ... g-program/
In the West we are smart enough to know that getting smarter is a waste of time. No matter how good real intelligence will ever be, artificial intelligence will soon be better. I'm sure all the genetics in the world won't make the average Chinaman smarter than Garry Kasparov, and Grary Kasparov was already beaten by a computer in 1996. Twenty years from now the best and the brightest genius on the planet will be outfoxed by his iPod.
The robot Morlocks are coming, and we need to not fight it and just learn to enjoy being Eloi. The stupid American of the future may only say, "Gee, that mango is a nice colour" while his Chinese counterpart says, "That mango emanates light at a heart-warming shade of 587 Angstroms!" but their fate will be the same.
15 to 20 years? I wouldn't go that far. I wrote a paper in high school about the future of robotics in society and had thus to read a lot of interviews and even a book from a prominent engineer on the subject. According to what I read then, it will take much longer than a mere two decades. It could potentially take another hundred years or more. AI is a very complex piece of technology.
And I don't know where you got the idea that the west thinks it's a waste of time because the mere existence of genetic engineering labs contradicts you.
@mrswdk: Don't believe everything you read in that article. Mr. Geoffrey Miller generalized. It's not because there are a lot of religious nuts in the US, that they will succeed in boycotting any research or scientific advancement. Especially when it comes to other countries. Many other western countries are far from as religiously fanatic as the US. Religious factions have tried to stop scientific advancement ever since the age of enlightenment. Obviously they failed. Liberalism prevailed.
On another note, I could make the case that China also has a cultural disadvantage. Like in so many asian countries, seniority is much more valued in China than it is in the west. This opposes the principles of putting the right man in the right spot, and allowing employees to contradict their employers and bosses. Of course this is not always the case, but it will probably be much more so than in the west(especially the US).
