Indeed, nature, and particularly biology, disregards our human considerations of fairness. The lottery of birth can appear as the greatest conceivable inequality. But in this matter, one must apply the Stoic doctrine that distinguishes between what depends on us and what does not. Morality concerns what depends on us, the choices that belong to the moral agents we are.
If I present the lottery of birth in an egalitarian light, it is specifically in the sense that we, as humans, have little control over this lottery. Particularly regarding IQ at birth, regardless of our wealth, we were all, until now, almost on equal footing in our inability to considerably influence this biological fact imposed upon us (I discussed in my previous comments the differences I see between the author’s proposal and education, but also between conventional medicine).
If the author’s project succeeds, IQ will become mainly a socially originated fact, like wealth. And inequality in wealth would then be accompanied by inequality in IQ, proportional or even exponential (if feedback mechanisms occur, considering that having a higher IQ might enable a wealthy individual to become even wealthier and thus access the latest innovations for further enhancement).
We already struggle to establish social mechanisms to redistribute wealth and limit the growth of inequalities; I can hardly imagine what it would become if we also had to address inequalities in access to IQ-enhancing technologies in a short time. I fear that all this could lead to a chaotic or dystopian scenario, possibly resulting in a partition of the human species and/or a civilizational collapse.
As for having a solution to ensure that this type of genetic engineering technology does not result in such a catastrophic outcome, I do not claim to have a miracle solution. As with other existential risks, what can be suggested is to try to slow down the trend (which is likely inevitable in the long term) instead of seeking to accelerate it, to think as much as possible in advance, to raise awareness of the risks in order to enable collective recognition of these issues (what I tries to do here), and to hope that with more time and this proactive reflection, the transition will proceed more smoothly, that international treaties will emerge, and that state mechanisms will gradually be put in place to counter or mitigate this unprecedented source of inequality.
Indeed, nature, and particularly biology, disregards our human considerations of fairness. The lottery of birth can appear as the greatest conceivable inequality. But in this matter, one must apply the Stoic doctrine that distinguishes between what depends on us and what does not. Morality concerns what depends on us, the choices that belong to the moral agents we are.
If I present the lottery of birth in an egalitarian light, it is specifically in the sense that we, as humans, have little control over this lottery. Particularly regarding IQ at birth, regardless of our wealth, we were all, until now, almost on equal footing in our inability to considerably influence this biological fact imposed upon us (I discussed in my previous comments the differences I see between the author’s proposal and education, but also between conventional medicine).
If the author’s project succeeds, IQ will become mainly a socially originated fact, like wealth. And inequality in wealth would then be accompanied by inequality in IQ, proportional or even exponential (if feedback mechanisms occur, considering that having a higher IQ might enable a wealthy individual to become even wealthier and thus access the latest innovations for further enhancement).
We already struggle to establish social mechanisms to redistribute wealth and limit the growth of inequalities; I can hardly imagine what it would become if we also had to address inequalities in access to IQ-enhancing technologies in a short time. I fear that all this could lead to a chaotic or dystopian scenario, possibly resulting in a partition of the human species and/or a civilizational collapse.
As for having a solution to ensure that this type of genetic engineering technology does not result in such a catastrophic outcome, I do not claim to have a miracle solution. As with other existential risks, what can be suggested is to try to slow down the trend (which is likely inevitable in the long term) instead of seeking to accelerate it, to think as much as possible in advance, to raise awareness of the risks in order to enable collective recognition of these issues (what I tries to do here), and to hope that with more time and this proactive reflection, the transition will proceed more smoothly, that international treaties will emerge, and that state mechanisms will gradually be put in place to counter or mitigate this unprecedented source of inequality.