I think the moral of all of this is that people need to have some kind of purpose in their lives which drives them. For example, I am a touring musician and recreational powerlifter. My goal in the next five years is to play major festivals in the US, get signed and to obtain a significant draw in the Northeast, and hopefully the rest of the country.

If people lack this kind of purpose, there is very little for people to further themselves with, and as such they often fall into the trap of being mediocre.

This thread and some of the people in it are disconcerting.

@Boris,

You have a few erroneous concepts in your post. Eugenics simply refers to utilizing selective breeding in an effort to affect the human gene pool. Hitler did not truly practice eugenics, as many of the traits he selected for/against (e.g. homosexuality) have a solely/much greater environmental component. If bearing children at a younger age is favoured, then why have humans evolved to bear children at increasingly higher ages?

Australopithecines wouldn't have lived much longer than 18-20 years on average, so would have to bear children YOUNG. Why hasn't faster maturation (and therefor child-bearing) been favoured by evolution? Herein lies the concept of precoccial vs. altricial young. The human baby is born underdeveloped. It is a long-term investment. You put in more, but it pays off better in the end. A baby's brain will continue to grow and mature for the next 25 years or so.

As human children require so much care, it is a requirement for parents to be able to provide the considerable time and resource requirements, which is why older parents are favoured, especially an older father (provider). A younger mother can, however, bear more and healthier children, which is why an older man-younger woman partnership is the most common and accepted. Biology is logic, everything happens for a reason.

As a genetics student (such an exciting field brimming with potential!), I am a transhumanist. Modern technology has largely eliminated the need for artificial selection in practising eugenics. We now have a few successful gene therapies. By introducing exogenous genes via a vector (or through other means), we can modify human DNA. A promising application is germ-line therapy, where the treatment is performed on our germ cells (sperm and ova) so the individual is not affected, but the treatment occurs for all future offspring of the individual.

It is a permanent change. As a transhumanist, I don't think this needs to be limited to preventing or curing disease. Why stop there when you can improve what "God" has given us? If we have the ability to do so, would it not be in our best interest to further propel man into his rightful place as the god of his microcosm? Improved life span, strength, beauty, endurance, and more, limited only by the extent of our collective imagination could all be possible with the technology of the future. This is the field I dream of entering. I want to make this reality.

On a side note, I actually had someone with the colossal nerve (and moreso stupidity!) to question this by asking: "We already have an overpopulation problem, wouldn't we be screwed if everyone lives forever?" While I admit that introducing this technology would cause new, unforseen issues to arise, I see the emergence of such technology as an inevitability.

I responded to the question by responding that only a small, select few would actually have the green to pay for these treatments. Let the free market decide. The market is evolution. God will not grant the devoted eternal life in the kingdom of God, technology will grant the gifted eternal life in the kingdom of man.

Oh yes, there will be MANY new ethical and other issues. To what extent should the technology be limited and who gets it? Ultimately, it will be a shadowy tribunal ruling us and making these decisions, probably happening already... :P

We often think that being stronger, smarter, faster, etc. is always an advantage. Not so. Humans, as the smartest animal, require the greatest developmental time. And we all know that having a lot of muscle means you require a lot more nutrition. There's always a downside, meaning that these are all situational advantages/disadvantages. Evolution isn't about being the best, it's about being best suited to the environment. Our unique adaptation is intelligence, which allows us to modify the environment to suit us. But, if we take our evolution into our own hands, as technology puts us on the verge of doing (if we're still going strong in a few hundred years, there will be no doubt!), we're the ones picking what we keep, as opposed to the environment. There is always the potential that things could go very wrong...

This is certainly true. I think the biggest thing going against humans is their desire to do what they want, not what is always needed. Nature doesn't want anything. It doesn't really care about us. We to a degree adjust to it, though I would say less so in this day and age. A result of this is our obesity I believe. We have left our purpose and what our body evolved for 10's of thousands of years to do. We have been able to work hard for long periods with little food and now we eat it at every corner without restriction. I almost believe that we NEED to rely on emerging technology to stop us from self destruction.

Hell, obesity will weed the weak out, so long as my health care dollars don't have to pay for it. I don't see why people bitch so much about paying for smoking-related illness but not about obesity-related illness. Oh wait, maybe it is because suddenly being fat is considered socially acceptable and smoking is less so, since the majority is now fat in North America.

God, it pisses me off. Learn how to eat and work out and you can eat like a strength/muscle athlete, a.k.a. a fucking pig in terms of calories :) Hell, we already rely on technology to survive. We'd be screwed without our clothes, shoes, fire, and weapons. And that's just enough to provide our basic needs. I predict that we will enter a world of body customization.

Look at the trend of increasing plastic surgery and other forms of body modification. As technology improves, and body modding gets cheaper and more accessible, we will enter a culture of it. For better or worse, it's already happening. Hopefully I can capitalize on it :)

Sudo Intellectuals at play.

It's getting harder to be your own man, I have never given into the PC B/S , I promise the yes men consider me an asshole, until they need the job to get done ! Then they just get the hell out of the way! And presto it's done! Then I am an ass again! But I keep my work ethic and myself respect! I teach my son to respect the position, but keep yourself respect! If you want to move up anymore,then you have no choice in my business, except play the game and kiss the booty! No thanks

"He is a modest man, yet he has so much to be modest about" - Winston Churchill on Clement Attlee, his successor as Prime minister

Women love mediocre men it makes them feel important and like they can accomplish things..