Would you choose specific traits for your children?

[Callipygous]

Guess my parent's should have been more careful with my genes

 

you do have a freakishly rare combination of interests...

 

cheerleader/soccerplayer who writes scifi (or whatever you would call that dragon stuff you keep asking about), can actually be spotted on a science forum (on a regular basis no less), and has a picture of yoda as her avatar?

 

yeah... i know tons of girls like that. O.o

 

(yeah, thats right, i actually get bored enough to check profiles : P )

 

Bean and Ender? Orson Scott Card rocks!!!!

 

hell yeah!

 

 

 

 

 

this is from a while back, but i dont see how someone choosing to give their children the best health technology can provide means they have serious control issues.

[AzurePhoenix]

Former cheerleader dammit!!! FORMER!!!!!

 

As for the "control issues," I believe that this comes from a more conservative wing of the science world, from people who have sensitive views warped by media-hysterics and psuedo-hippie ethical ideals.

[Callipygous]

Former cheerleader dammit!!! FORMER!!!!!

 

sorry : (

/cower

[AzurePhoenix]

Sorry, bad memories ...

[Gertwor]

I readed all posts and noticed that everyone has the same utopia as me (or I think so).Us as Upper Class(Not econamicly but ones who think,create and designs)Should be together where every induvugal is think him self as a part of a human soceity not some flag(Altough i am very Nationalist if someone say come join us at our place where everyone is People of earth and free to belive what religion they want i will go without thinking)So in that soceity geneticly altering our childs can be allowed as i know any of you will have resanoble request and logical mutation but in today worlds IT's impossible as surely some rich guy will say that he is going to make his children a genuis and bribe someone for this.I must admit this we need some selection method for our community excluding Poors,weaks and Selfish richs.I dont think we can go further without understanding that we are HUMANS PEOPLE OF EARTH and NOT TURKS,American or Canadians.(I know it sounds fasict but this the only way Do you realy think Aliens will nations they will be united as one to create even bigger and better than what they are).

 

Thx Please Critisis this

[Rekkr]

Is parents were allowed to choose which traits they wanted for their children most of us would look like celebrities -- most likely the same celebrities. I guess this is kind of dystopic, but it is likely it would happen (just look at teens and their trends).

[AzurePhoenix]

 

Thx Please Critisis this

Agreed. It's totally impossible to actually do, because the majority of people in the world are either stupid, irrational, wreckless, hearltess, or corrupt, the same reason everyhing else in this world is screwed up.

[Flareon]

Agreed. It's totally impossible to actually do, because the majority of people in the world are either stupid, irrational, wreckless, hearltess, or corrupt, the same reason everyhing else in this world is screwed up.

 

Yes, and while stupid parents focus on the shallow aspects and create dysfunctional, albeit pretty, kids, the rest of us a bit more rational will help create an improved future humankind: more intelligent, with a healthier psyche, and generally fitter for the environment.

 

And then, let the 'weeding' begin.

[AzurePhoenix]

But before that is possible, those of us with the capacity to exist in or run such a world must claw our way to total world domination, not an easy task, considering our status as a super-minority.

[Flareon]

But before that is possible, those of us with the capacity to exist in or run such a world must claw our way to total world domination, not an easy task, considering our status as a super-minority.

 

Hmm...historically, it would seem that elite minorities often had little trouble dominating the less-priviledged masses.

[Callipygous]

But before that is possible, those of us with the capacity to exist in or run such a world must claw our way to total world domination, not an easy task, considering our status as a super-minority.

 

 

what flareon said^^

 

plus, by the very definition of the minority your describing, we have all the sane, rational, careful, big picture viewing, geniuses on our side. we shouldnt have that hard of a time : )

[AzurePhoenix]

True. Hadn't thought about that. I was wearing my cynic-glasses again. Okay, if this is going to work, we'll need a satelite network, a totally self-contained bunker, and a few million packets of mutant flesh-eating fungal spores....

[MolecularMan14]

Yes, to certain extents (moderation is good for most things...most)

If I could save my children from disease that would ruin their lives, or even affect it negatively, absolutely, I would take that opportunity. They're going to be the future, so why not prevent the future from terrible things that could have been prevented (I have terrible grammar tonight, its late...humor me).

HOWEVER, as for aspects of the child's characteristsics, SUCK IT UP PARENTS! There should be no debate over a girl or a boy, blonde or brunete, brown, blue, green, or purple eyes; these are all accessories that would not benifit them at all. The only reason to carry such an act out is as an extension of yourself, and that's not what children are (as we all know, some of us being unstable teenagers <) they are individuals.

[AzurePhoenix]

Well, brown eyes would benefit in the sense that blue are more sensitive to light-induced damage. And its arguable that pretty eyes lead to the advantage of being able to woo potential mates, giving them an edge in the genetic world.

[MolecularMan14]

beauty is not collective, while you see blue/green/brown eyes as pretty, it would be selective to the mate...I dont want to mate with anyone who would reject another person because of eye color.

In the future, I would hope that we dont burn the hell out of the ozone, and that light adjusting glasses would prevent blindness for all us blue eyed folk Well a guy can hope

[Kylonicus]

If you wanna make your children smarter, just manipulate EPIGENETICS and PRENATAL HORMONES.

 

It's not genetic alterations but it's the next best thing.

 

I have done alot of looking into this, and I believe anyone could easily manipulate someone to be super intelligent.

 

Progesterone raises baby's IQ's by about 30, has drastically other positive side effects towards increasing academic ability and emotional stability. According to the study done with the children they were also 7 times more likely to enter a university.

 

I believe another neurosteroid, melatonin, which has been shown in numerous clinical trials to be neurotrophic, and which it's mechanisms of inducing higher intelligence are partially known would drastically increase the intelligence of the people who used it. I don't think there would be any danger whatsoever in using melatonin for this purpose.

 

If you wanted your child to be more ambitious or creative, you could increase the amount of L-Dopa floating around, although this might be dangerous.

 

If you wanted the child to have better academic ability and to be an academic genius, you might give him/her an acetylcholine agonist, preferablly very, very small doses of huperzine serrata.

 

If you wanted to increase the child's beauty if it's a girl, then you increase the level of prenatal testosterone. It is actually prenatal testosterone that is responsible for the feminizing effect. When aromatase is available(which it isn't in girls prenatally), or when estrogen is combined with testosterone then it produces a masculizing effect. However, since prenatal testosterone without aromatase leads to feminization, it would make women, even more womanly, and the traits would be blairingly obvious.

 

By giving a child a high dose of nutrient or chemical it upregulates the used pathways that that nutrient or chemical uses, and the effects will effect it's offspring and it's offspring due to EPIGENETICS. Thus if you want to accelerate the use of the choline pathway, you simply increase the amount of prenatal choline. It's pretty bloody simple.

 

Later on, when you wanted the child to be taller, you could apply HGH.

 

 

As for minor cosmetic alterations, you can do that after the child has been born. You can easily dye your child's hair, if they want it, or use contact lense with a different eye color.

 

And for the "genetic superiority" that you want, your child being genetically superior will easily be able to attract(and will probably not settle for something less) a very genetically advanced mate.

 

BTW, if you try and do this on a mass scale because you think "It's what's best for humanity" all you will be doing is screwing the rest of us who want to do this for OUR children. The right wing fanatics will go nuts, and wouldn't dare let anything like this happen.

 

Or, they would intentionally screw some babies up, in order to try and show how "unsafe" it is. In reality, it should be very safe, so long as you don't use mega doses of progesterone, or if you do, you make sure you use it in combination with high, high doses of melatonin, and small doses of DHEA. If you don't use DHEA, then the adrenal glands shouldn't develop, the pineal gland won't develop, the sexual organs won't develop, the child will be a midget, and a bunch of other bad stuff will probably happen. It's generally wise to stay away from mega doses of progesterone.

[quick silver]

i may have said no to this question...... but some one had said use it to remove dissease. thast in my opinion is the right way to use this type of technology.

 

we shouldn't chose how our children look. that is up to them.

[Dak]

uk allows parents to choose charechtoristics of their baby for medical reasons linkage

[alext87]

I think that it could be used to reduce the amount of disease and allow parents more choice over their baby eg. they have a problem and don't want their child to go through the same problems. i also think that by supporting designer babies it would allow the development of other technologies that would benefit man-kind.

 

However, if designer babies were possible there must be regulations on what you can actually change. It is cruel to design a baby to have anormalities.

[Kylonicus]

If I were to design a baby, I would wanna make the babies brain have an upregulated GAP-43 gene(this would make their brains and spinal cords regenerate if they got damaged), I would want an upregulated MAP-K gene(this would make them produce more neurons, and the neurons they would produce would survive longer, simulatenously, it would increase the rate at which synapses formed), I would want glutathione and superoxide dismutase levels to be high(this would help them live a long time). I would want them(I know this sounds corny) to be able to digest currently undisgestable cellulose, so they could eat grass, wood, ect... and so they would never run out of food. I would wanna give them that gene from tubeworms that allows them to convert omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acids, and that would make it where they were slightly more stress tolerant. I would want to make my child produce antibiotics that wouldn't have a negative influence on the child's development, this way the child would be relatively stronger against pathogens in the environment(the genes for that I could get from leeches).

 

I would want the child's neuron migration to be overly receptive to neuronal migration guides(basically I would want my child to be very, very smart, and emotionally well adjusted). This is versus trophic influences in the brain due to hormones(like I have a freakishly large parietal lobe, and motor cortex due to too much growth hormone prenatally, which I believe is the cause of my autism and bipolar, however with a brain being more receptive to neural migration cues, and stress, it would adjust itself better, making it where everything was balanced out, and where the child would probably be VERY intelligent).

 

I would like to change the ASPM gene, so my child's cerebral cortex is bigger.

 

I don't know how I would do this, but I would like to make my child's anterior cingulate(which is like, the most important part of the brain for intelligence), INCREDIBLY large. This would give my child higher intelligence, greater capacity to concentrate, greater capacity for thoughtstream, greater freewill.

I would want to make the abstract reward/delayed gratification center in the right PFC much bigger, so my child would be a workaholic, and be able to resist temptations that wouldn't be good for him/her. I would want my child's right parietal association cortex to be large, and my child's weirneckes area to be large. Your only as smart as your neuroregulators will allow you to be.

 

I would want my child to be super intelligent, but at the same time, I would want him/her to be very sexual. I would want my child to have a VERY, VERY STRONG desire to procreate and have a family, so that my genes would be passed down from generation to generation.

[AzurePhoenix]

At this point, are they really your genes anymore?

And if you want to ensure they ahve children, you might wanna think about making them pretty. I know it's not necessary, but it might give them a slight edge.

[Kylonicus]

99% of them would be my genes. This way, those 99%, would have a chance of succeeding FAR, FAR greater, than if I hadn't. It would be fantastic.

 

Imagine having a son or daughter, who was hot, intelligent, would enjoy a super high quality of life, and chances are, your child would procreate, and procreate in much, much larger numbers.

 

Not to mention all the contributions your offspring would make to society. All the intellectual achievements, all the breakthroughs, ect...

 

[AzurePhoenix]

Actually, if your kids are as smart as you want them to be, they might be able to override their procreative instincts, 'cuz honestly, how stupid do you have to be to have in excess of three kids?

[Kylonicus]

Maybe I need to engineer something like the "Pawn Far" that the vulcans have in star trek. They have an uncontrolable desire to breed, you never know when and where it will occur. If you don't have a mate within like a day, you go off and rape someone. I would find the rape part detrimental to society, so I would need a way(maybe make their social concious very large?) to avoid that.

 

My kids probably wouldn't rape someone, they would probably just use power as an aphrodesiac, and screw some slut. But all the same they would produce offspring(which is what's important). If they were married, they would produce strong offspring, due to the fact they would probably end up with someone of similar genetic strength.

[Auburngirl05]

99% of them would be my genes. This way' date=' those 99%, would have a chance of succeeding FAR, FAR greater, than if I hadn't. It would be fantastic.

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With issues like that (if you put all the 'good stuff' in there are they really your genes), it would probably be a matter of manipulating the activating/expression sequences of DNA instead of removing/adding the genes themselves.