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Super-human brains are possible via genetic modification


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It's clear that there's a specific set of genes responsible for brain development when you're in the womb, and that those genes affect your ability to learn later on. But now a group of researchers in the U.S. and Canada have identified those genes. And their discovery could represent the first step in tweaking brain development. It's possible that that knocking out some of those genes or adding extra copies of them to a developing baby could result in the tailor-made human minds of Brave New World: Some will be born to develop cutting-edge technologies, and others to be slow-witted and compliant.

We can now make people smart and others dumb.
VynalFrontier

40 responses // Super-human brains are possible via genetic modification

  • Kewl if you are born an Alpha, and also kewl if you are born a gamma. That was the beauty of Brave New World.

    Maybe when we start colonizing other planets, we could experiment with totally different forms of civilization.
    aquamammal
  • And they would be amazing powerful beings capable of the most mind-blowing capabilities...but we would have to make sure they had limited life spans and send blade runners after our creations when they mutiny, take over our world and begin live experiments on us? Philip Dick lives.
    24French
    1 response to this
  • Errrrr, no we can't.

    You might wanna do some actual research on genmodding before you post something as ridiculous as this.

    Sorry to spoil the fun guys, but there will be no "super-brains."

    And as always, don't forget to check the source guys.
    Saladin
    6 responses to this
  • I would call this "neo-eugenics"... :(
    Vierotchka
    1 response to this
  • Isn't society already made up of smart people and dumb people. We can skip the mind altering drugs to make mindless drones. That's what professional wrestling and shows like the bachelor is for.
    speckledjim
  • Thankfully I'll be dead before generations of those people start to make a difference in the world.
    cerealforeal
  • "I've been around the world and found that only stupid people are breeding..."...but thanks to the smart people, there may be hope for mankind after all.
    damnneargenius
    1 response to this
  • Hmmm... To be honest, this sounds like a positive development, but I have ambivalent feelings about this project. I'm not being rational, so I recognize that. I feel like people should be putting forth the effort to become intelligent. They should make the choice to seek knowledge. We shouldn't force it upon them before and by birth. Unfortunately, I don't currently have any reasonable argumentation behind this...If anyone wants to argue this, I will try to go further into this later.
    AutifK
    1 response to this
  • That's all well and good, but I'm still waiting for someone to develop Soma.
    CCashman
  • That's falling into flatland reductionism like the strict behaviorists since brain development might account for some of it but not all of it. Enhancing the ability of the genes to make more synapses or a better balance of brain chemistry might make learning easier.

    But that still doesn't change the fact that everyone has to go from pre-personal to personal ego development and then each stage between and beyond the ego.

    Genes might slow or accelerate evolution through these stages but they don't eliminate the need for them so the strict "Brave New World" scenario doesn't work because you can't stop the Gamma's from evolving and you can't get the Alpha's to skip stages.
    Argon18
  • we should learn not to do this shit . hasn't anybody seen i am legend? science fiction has always been the best predictor of the future.
    diabolical44
  • So we are controlling minds now? This seems unethical to me. I see no need for genetic mutation on a child that would otherwise develop normally. You can't pick and choose who will and will not sustain different levels of intelligence! I can't help but feel this is the type of thing George Orwell was trying to draw attention to when he wrote a little something called 1984...
    AbbyandChristina
    2 responses to this
  • WOW thats cool.... makes me wanna say "I AM GOD"
    kewal91
  • This is garbage.
    mako2424
  • It'll also be possible to have a flying car in the future.

    With the Human Genome mapped, it's not really news to say, "We found the gene that does x!"
    handshakeheartbreak
  • Risky business...
    TyMarshal
  • so we can get rid of red-necks and ghetto trash?




    THATS GENIUS!!!!!!!!
    power_packed_ro
  • So basically the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is slowly becoming a reality.
    Le_Bambi_Noir
  • x-men here we come..
    NaCl
  • Where have I seen this?
    Charly, can it go horribly right this time?
    marpunk
  • This smells phony to me...
    kristianbrodie
  • Another case of a little bit of knowledge being a dangerous thing. We really don't know anything about nature, we just think we do and human arrogance makes people think they can play god.

    Also, who gets to decide who gets the brains and who becomes the "worker bees"? George W. Bush? Gordon Brown? Robert Mugabe? Scary thought.
    dandrews1969
  • http://www.pixelsurgeon.com/admin/shared/images/gattaca...
    It is an obvious evolutionary step that science fiction has already predicted in countless books and films. Sooner or later, we'll have to deal with the risks of Eugenetics and Gattaca-scenarios.
    saverio
    1 response to this
  • http://www.abolitionist.com/
    Here's an interesting idea called The Abolitionist Project.

    Also I'm wondering how Saladin seems to know so much about what science will be able to achieve in the future, has he been there?
    jonbrooks
    2 responses to this
  • interesting, though the factors that make up human intelligence are s'posed to be much more complex than those of mice and flies... wonder how much tweaking those genes *would* effect a person - that whole nature/nurture debate...
    purplefox

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