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June 30, 2005

Who's your daddy?

Until I read Salon's recent article on The Genius Factory, a book by David Plotz, I never knew about the notorious Nobel Prize Sperm Bank. The bank was founded by Robert Graham, a man who believed "the genius factory was nothing less than the most important project of mankind, because it was the only possible salvation of a genetically doomed world."

Plotz followed up on the project, looking up some of the 200 babies that were produced from Graham's semi-racist eugenics project. Obviously, the project didn't produce a breed of super-geniuses that now run every facet of society. In fact, many of those who donated not only never received a Nobel Prize, but at least one mentioned in the article was a fraud and con artist. But Plotz makes some interesting observations about the Nature versus Nurture questions raised by the project:

For example, "Samantha," the mother of another of "Jeremy's" sons, is an engineer at a high-tech company in Massachusetts. Her husband had had a vasectomy, and, writes Plotz, "her inner nerd loved the idea of a genius sperm bank. She was smart, she'd always been smart, and she wanted a smart kid."

So she raises one. Is it any surprise that on a day-to-day basis she is highly involved in her child's education and well-being? The paradox is ironic. The kind of mothers who would choose a donor from a Nobel Prize Sperm Bank, and thus place a bet on heredity, are precisely the kind of mothers who will also labor to make sure that the environment their children grow up in is as supportive as possible. So who's to say which is more important, nature or nurture?

While the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank seems like a far-fetched scheme dreamed up by a delusional idealist, the concept of genetic selection may not be that far off. Everyday scientist understand the human genome a little better, and the prospect of picking the physical and mental traits of your unborn child sounds less like science fiction and more like a real prospect.

Graham wanted to breed geniuses because he felt the world was in danger of becoming overrun by idiots. I'll admit, sometimes when I consider some of the things that happen in pop culture, the media, and our elections, I wonder if he was right. But whether it's done with sperm from Nobel Prize winners or genetic manipulation, breeding geniuses isn't the answer. Genius is defined as, "extraordinary intellectual and creative power." Genius is one of those measurements that are relative to what they are measured against. In a society of bred geniuses, competition may increase, but excellence would lose its value. Imagine a basketball game played by 10 Michael Jordans, or trying to teach a classroom full of Einstein's. Society thrives on diversity, and a uniform society, whether full of nothing but idiots or geniuses, would stagnate.

But a more feasible scenario, should we develop the technology choose our children's traits, is that this will be an option for a privileged few. Those who can afford it, will breed super-intelligent babies who will be assured of maintaining a dominant position in society. Social mobility will slow to a crawl, and the gap between the wealthy and poor will grow wider.

While the rest of us throw our sperm and eggs into the roulette wheel of chance, the Paris Hilton's and the Jessica Simpson's of the world will have daughters that are not only sexy and talented, but also much smarter than their dumb-as-a-brick mothers.

And I just have one thing to say to those future spoiled, privileged brats, whose good looks are rivaled only by their entertaining personality and witty intellect: How you doin?

Posted by Elyas at 04:10 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

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