Connections
To the Ideal:
At the start of the class, we discussed what "the ideal" was, and
while we never reached a conclusion, the lack of a conclusion speaks to me about
the true nature of what is ideal. I personally believe that what is ideal is
somewhat transient as it differs from person to person, this is
similar to evolution because there is no ideal organism, there are just
different strategies of survival. This is a result of the fact that conditions,
in the case of evolution, environmental conditions, are constantly changing.
Human beings are complicated creatures, as has been thoroughly analyzed
throughout this class however, I think that much of what we desire from life is based
upon an intrinsic human nature, which at its most basic is the desire to survive
and succeed. This frame of mind can assist in the interpretation of many
seemingly impenetrable subjects. Evolution pertains to the intrinsic
nature of what is ideal in many respects, including how we as humans perceive
what is ideal to how we attempt to attain the ideal. Furthermore,
evolution relates in that through Natural Selection, organisms are optimized.
To the Brain Trust Group: Evolution is part of the
Brain Trust group because the group is all about optimization. GMOs are
merely artificial selection and manipulation of desired genes, Gene therapy and
stem cells have the potential to optimize health, intelligence is a trait
which is the pinnacle of importance and must be optimized, and Natural
Selection is merely the process by which nature optimizes organisms. As there is
no clear definition of what is ideal, as it varies from individual to
individual, the best definition that can be conceived is the idea of
optimization.
To Better Children: The correlation between the idea of optimizing one's offspring and evolution are obvious. Survival without procreation in evolutionary theory is a dead-end. The ultimate goal of life is to pass on your genes to another generation, and to give that next generation the best advantages to increase the chances of continuing the cycle. This relates with the idea of mate selection in that organisms tend to choose mates (whether consciously or subconsciously) who will have the most optimal genes for survival and proliferation in order to achieve the aforementioned goals. Bettering children by means of natural optimization, or synthetic means are some of the current proverbial forks in the road which is being seen at present. In other words, optimizing one's offspring is everyone's ultimate goal, but it is necessary to ascertain which methods are ethically unsound. As of now there are two groups of potential ways in which children can be "improved" which include pre- and post-natal procedures. One way would be to use drugs, such as Ritalin to improve any problems after birth. In the category of post-natal alterations, there is "choosing-in", "fixing up", and "screening out". Fixing up refers to actually changing the genetic makeup of the fetus inside the womb, screening out refers to choosing the best possible embryo, and choosing is the process of screening the embryos prior to implantation.
This page was made for Honors 210, a course offered at Monmouth College