I don’t think intelligence is any more ‘mysterious’ than our ignorance. But you have to understand before you tinker.
One of the stranger issues with animal breeding is that selecting for physiological traits tends to have behavioral consequences. All-white animals (chickens, horses, dogs) often have problems with aggression. Chickens selected to lay more eggs are also more prone to stress. Genetic engineering has predictable, consistent results in some contexts (a luminescent fish is, as far as I know, the same as a normal fish except for the glow) but unpredictable results in other contexts.
How much more so, with genes thought to code for intelligence?
Before you start manipulating genes (in humans?!) that merely correlate with intelligence, I think you need to find out a bit more about what those genes do in the brain. Otherwise, you’re more likely to produce a crazy or dead baby than a genius baby.
It definitely goes the other way too: In the Soviet Union some researchers bred foxes for several generations, selecting for tameness. Within a few generations the foxes started developing wider foreheads, wagging tails and floppy ears.
I don’t think intelligence is any more ‘mysterious’ than our ignorance. But you have to understand before you tinker.
One of the stranger issues with animal breeding is that selecting for physiological traits tends to have behavioral consequences. All-white animals (chickens, horses, dogs) often have problems with aggression. Chickens selected to lay more eggs are also more prone to stress. Genetic engineering has predictable, consistent results in some contexts (a luminescent fish is, as far as I know, the same as a normal fish except for the glow) but unpredictable results in other contexts.
How much more so, with genes thought to code for intelligence?
Before you start manipulating genes (in humans?!) that merely correlate with intelligence, I think you need to find out a bit more about what those genes do in the brain. Otherwise, you’re more likely to produce a crazy or dead baby than a genius baby.
It definitely goes the other way too: In the Soviet Union some researchers bred foxes for several generations, selecting for tameness. Within a few generations the foxes started developing wider foreheads, wagging tails and floppy ears.
And now they are available as extremely expensive pets.