On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 12:52:34 -0400 (EDT), Jim Sharkey
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Doug Pensinger wrote:
Jim Sharkey wrote:
I also wonder, if such tinkering becomes viable, does it have the
possibility of damaging an egalitarian society?
How so?
Well, I would imagine that such advances would only be available to
the wealthy, at least initially, possibly even for an entire
generation. In which case, children of the wealthy, who arguably
already have one leg up on the competition, would get yet another
tick in the "plus" column in terms of success, conceivably
concetrating wealth and power even more tightly to a select few.
I imagine that even if the manipulation of traits becomes illeagal here it
will be legal somewhere and rich people will have access to it anyway. In
any case, in the U.S. people from different social stratta have a tendency
to mix so I'm not sure that there would be a problem.
I'd be interested to hear why Charlie feels that society would become more
equal in the long run per his most recent comment...
I certainly don't mean to sound like an alarmist hack SF writer. I'm
just allowing for the possibility.
We're all here at least partly for that reason - discussing
possibilities. 8^)
--
Doug
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