Comments on: designer babies http://yoakemae.net/designer-babies little girl. literary trouble. Mon, 23 Aug 2010 22:47:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Rin http://yoakemae.net/designer-babies/comment-page-1#comment-51242 Rin Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:28:40 +0000 http://yoakemae.net/?p=170#comment-51242 Four words: Ghost in the Shell. Personally, I fall into the transhumanist category (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism), so I support genetic modification. Abortion not so much (my thoughts on that subject will spawn a rant, so I'll let sleeping dogs lie for now), but... Didn't someone write a book about this? *Google* I was right. http://www.amazon.com/Uglies-Trilogy-Book-1/dp/0689865384 Well, as you stated, there are multiple points of view. If "designer babies" really did come true, I believe that instead of everyone sharing perfect(ly boring optional) beauty, it would level the playing field somewhat. How many girls in this world have awesome personalities, but are hindered by by not being model-calibre (or even average) beauty? Sometimes it's self-inflicted, sometimes it isn't. By making everyone visually pleasing, a good personality is even more sought-after, and everyone gets to date someone beautiful (except the pricks who refuse to better themselves. >_>), so everyone wins. From a nonconformist's point of view, however, it would easily get very boring. This leads to another point: In beauty, there is really only so much people can do. Variety (and with a high standard of living that would go hand-in-hand with such an advanced society) would be very hard to find among billions of perfect people. Eventually, "designs" would be repeated or recycled, creating an effect similar to that found in video games, where all the NPCs or enemies look the same. I can see people scarring or disfiguring themselves purposefully to stand out. Here's an interesting question: If 10 out of 10 babies survive being born, and everyone's cured of diseases, ages slower, et cetera, how would we deal with the massive population spike? Spaceward expansion? Building upwards? Bringing back the clever Japanese custom of brainwashing society into being unafraid of ritual suicide in the event of failure (and thus, keep population from getting out-of-hand)? The whole "playing God" part doesn't really bother me much, since I'm a Godless heathen with a hilarious God complex anyway. (Wait, wouldn't that mean I cancel myself out, or don't believe in myself? :D) Four words: Ghost in the Shell.
Personally, I fall into the transhumanist category (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism), so I support genetic modification. Abortion not so much (my thoughts on that subject will spawn a rant, so I’ll let sleeping dogs lie for now), but… Didn’t someone write a book about this? *Google* I was right. http://www.amazon.com/Uglies-Trilogy-Book-1/dp/0689865384 Well, as you stated, there are multiple points of view. If “designer babies” really did come true, I believe that instead of everyone sharing perfect(ly boring optional) beauty, it would level the playing field somewhat. How many girls in this world have awesome personalities, but are hindered by by not being model-calibre (or even average) beauty? Sometimes it’s self-inflicted, sometimes it isn’t. By making everyone visually pleasing, a good personality is even more sought-after, and everyone gets to date someone beautiful (except the pricks who refuse to better themselves. >_>), so everyone wins. From a nonconformist’s point of view, however, it would easily get very boring. This leads to another point: In beauty, there is really only so much people can do. Variety (and with a high standard of living that would go hand-in-hand with such an advanced society) would be very hard to find among billions of perfect people. Eventually, “designs” would be repeated or recycled, creating an effect similar to that found in video games, where all the NPCs or enemies look the same. I can see people scarring or disfiguring themselves purposefully to stand out.

Here’s an interesting question: If 10 out of 10 babies survive being born, and everyone’s cured of diseases, ages slower, et cetera, how would we deal with the massive population spike? Spaceward expansion? Building upwards? Bringing back the clever Japanese custom of brainwashing society into being unafraid of ritual suicide in the event of failure (and thus, keep population from getting out-of-hand)?

The whole “playing God” part doesn’t really bother me much, since I’m a Godless heathen with a hilarious God complex anyway. (Wait, wouldn’t that mean I cancel myself out, or don’t believe in myself? :D)

]]> By: Aneesah http://yoakemae.net/designer-babies/comment-page-1#comment-51241 Aneesah Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:49:00 +0000 http://yoakemae.net/?p=170#comment-51241 RL Babies, eek. Very creative of you guys, those "ad"s...^^ But yeah, there's always a reason why things happen; why some people are born disabled, why medical conditions occur, and I think most of all humans just need to learn from it all. Perhaps learn that even when we reach the point where we have the power to "be God", we shouldn't. By the way, I've now reached the UK too! :D Gosh you weren't kidding when you mentioned the usefulness of hoodies. =P RL Babies, eek. Very creative of you guys, those “ad”s…^^ But yeah, there’s always a reason why things happen; why some people are born disabled, why medical conditions occur, and I think most of all humans just need to learn from it all. Perhaps learn that even when we reach the point where we have the power to “be God”, we shouldn’t.

By the way, I’ve now reached the UK too! :D Gosh you weren’t kidding when you mentioned the usefulness of hoodies. =P

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