GPlus: We must create a race of superhumans to prevent annihilation
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Re: GPlus: We must create a race of superhumans to prevent annihilation
#2Just a point: "Darwinian evolution will improve us eventually" I completely disagree. In a civilization Darwinian evolution does not apply anymore because society protects its weakest members.
Re: GPlus: We must create a race of superhumans to prevent annihilation
#3It's an intriguing thought but misguided. We shouldn't try to enhance our logical minds, we should be focusing on genetically engineering a race of super-empaths. By a super-empath, I mean a person that could feel any death within radius of earth as a grueling experience. I know it sounds absurd, probably even impossible to genetically create, but that is what we need.
A logical person might detonate a nuke. However a super-empath cannot without suffering horrifically.
Re: GPlus: We must create a race of superhumans to prevent annihilation
#4> ... and leads to a far more guided 'evolution'.
At that point I stopped reading. There is no such thing as "guided evolution." If it's guided, it's not evolution. The "guided evolution" sentiment only betrays the ignorance of the writer.
Evolution is not a process of design by committee as suggested in the article. It is a much more basic process in which whatever survives, survives, and no one may ever know the exact reason why the last organism standing is present for the next phase.
As to "We must create a race of superhumans ...", we're not qualified to do that, any more than a team of carpenters can create an Einstein simply by diligently hammering on the problem.
Re: GPlus: We must create a race of superhumans to prevent annihilation
#5Just a point: "Darwinian evolution will improve us eventually" I completely disagree. In a civilization Darwinian evolution does not apply anymore because society protects its weakest members.
This is wrong. In a civilization Darwinian evolution has different selection pressure, but selection pressure still exists. For example, instead of the weak, the unattractive drops from the gene pool. (As far as I know, no civilzation guarantees reproduction for all members yet.)
Re: GPlus: We must create a race of superhumans to prevent annihilation
#6Just a point: "Darwinian evolution will improve us eventually" I completely disagree. In a civilization Darwinian evolution does not apply anymore because society protects its weakest members.
This is a patently false understanding of Darwinism as the "survival of the strongest". It has always been survival of the fittest in the sense of the one who is best adapted to the environment.
In our time, people with a tendency towards drug abuse, psychopathy and unchecked aggression, may well have a lesser likelyhood to reproduce. The same obviously is even more true for people with chromosomal aberrations.
Re: GPlus: We must create a race of superhumans to prevent annihilation
#7It's an intriguing thought but misguided. We shouldn't try to enhance our logical minds, we should be focusing on genetically engineering a race of super-empaths. By a super-empath, I mean a person that could feel any death within radius of earth as a grueling experience. I know it sounds absurd, probably even impossible to genetically create, but that is what we need. A logical person might detonate a nuke. However…
> we should be focusing on genetically engineering a race of super-empaths. By a super-empath, I mean a person that could feel any death within radius of earth as a grueling experience.
There's a reason we don't have this ability. People are fond of life precisely because we can't feel the suffering of others, or for that matter, remember our own suffering for very long. A super-empath is an evolutionary dead end, which is why there aren't any.
Nice idea in a philosophical sense, but not practical.
> but that is what we need.
On what basis? Don't you think evolution provides meaningful answers to questions like this? If you want to know how evolution reacts to this idea (to stretch a concept to its breaking point), just count the super-empaths you know. Then count their devoted followers.
> A logical person might detonate a nuke. However a super-empath cannot without suffering horrifically.
Such a person would quickly fall victim to someone who would not suffer horrifically by detonating a nuke. How can you not see that?
The universe is morally neutral. There's no benevolent superbeing that rewards the sensitive souls you're describing. Indeed, to understand this idea's history, study religion, the most ruthless and bloodthirsty human institution ever imagined.
Re: GPlus: We must create a race of superhumans to prevent annihilation
#8> ... and leads to a far more guided 'evolution'. At that point I stopped reading. There is no such thing as "guided evolution." If it's guided, it's not evolution. The "guided evolution" sentiment only betrays the ignorance of the writer. Evolution is not a process of design by committee as suggested in the article. It is a much more basic process in which whatever survives, survives, and no one may ever know the ex…
Thanks for the criticism.
Re: GPlus: We must create a race of superhumans to prevent annihilation
#9Just a point: "Darwinian evolution will improve us eventually" I completely disagree. In a civilization Darwinian evolution does not apply anymore because society protects its weakest members.
Thanks for the criticism.
I wanted to mean evolution will improve us eventually, only if those people with aggressive impulses have severe disadvantage going forward in the society. But that premise is debatable, I agree.
Re: GPlus: We must create a race of superhumans to prevent annihilation
#10> ... and leads to a far more guided 'evolution'. At that point I stopped reading. There is no such thing as "guided evolution." If it's guided, it's not evolution. The "guided evolution" sentiment only betrays the ignorance of the writer. Evolution is not a process of design by committee as suggested in the article. It is a much more basic process in which whatever survives, survives, and no one may ever know the ex…
> we're not qualified to do that
Judging by history, we are. We created better computing machines, better chess players, better factory workers, better communication channels, better senors, than any of us is or is equipped with without such augmentation.