though of course, one could argue that there's a kind of scale between genius-clever-ordinary-stupid-disabled-retarded-braindead or something like that. But still, I think the problem aren't people who are actually classified as handicapped or disabled - because, very frequently, they never have kids and OTOH many 'disabilites' only concern part of the mind (such as autism, or, you might argue, geekiness) and may actually have certain advantages (well, yes, geekiness). The danger to our gene pool is ordinary stupidity. You know, stupid people grow up in stupid families, get a stupid job, marry stupid partners, *have stupid kids*...; and also people who have brains but don't use them, and just hang around in front of their TV all day, swallowing everything they're told rather than thinking.
Physical weakness? Another interesting point, could be very significant if you look at it that way, as many very respected and intelligent people have physical (and genetic, that's all that's relevant here) defects. So that might cause problems for our species eventually. OTOH, you could argue that the physical body is going to be obsolete sooner or later anyway (or at least that medical science knows it so well that genetic defects aren't a problem), so only the mental side matters.
Then again, maybe eventually humans will start manipulating their own genes. Again several possible outcomes: Class society based on natural <-> enhanced distinction; severe bugs in the new genome that are only noticed a couple of generations later and humanity suddenly goes extinct; or we actually get it right for a change...
Of course, all that is assuming we don't mess up the environment so badly that we're gone before any of this happens. |
