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People usually think they recognize immorality when they see it, but what if it’s packaged by attractive and seemingly altruistic women from within a STEM field? (Isn’t this frequently how such things are presented within sci-fi, too?)
The conversation in the video above is about why eugenics are a good thing. The scientist being interviewed is the face of a genetic screening protocol designed to help prevent defective people from being born. Her own mother – if subjected to her daughter’s scientific protocols – would not have been allowed to be born.
When a eugenicist talks about cures, they mean a cure for the collective, not for the individual. When Sidiqqui talks about “curing” blindness, she doesn’t mean restoring sight, she means means purging those genes from the human genetic stock.
eugenics /yoo͞-jĕn′ĭks/
noun
- The study or practice of attempting to improve the human gene pool by encouraging the reproduction of people considered to have desirable traits and discouraging or preventing the reproduction of people considered to have undesirable traits.
- The science of improving stock, whether human or animal.
- A social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary qualities through selective breeding.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
There was a lot of time spent in the 20th century explaining why eugenics are a bad idea. It is apparently past time to pick that explanation back up.
The guy from the quote is another example of why maybe we should not assume that being good at science equates to moral wisdom – though he at least possessed an awareness that the two are not the same.
Who is E.O. Wilson?
Edward Osborne Wilson ForMemRS (June 10, 1929 – December 26, 2021) was an American biologist, naturalist, ecologist, and entomologist known for developing the field of sociobiology.
Born in Alabama, Wilson found an early interest in nature and frequented the outdoors. At age seven, he was partially blinded in a fishing accident; due to his reduced sight, Wilson resolved to study entomology. After graduating from the University of Alabama, Wilson transferred to complete his dissertation at Harvard University, where he distinguished himself in multiple fields. In 1956, he co-authored a paper defining the theory of character displacement. In 1967, he developed the theory of island biogeography with Robert MacArthur.
Wilson was the Pellegrino University Research Professor Emeritus in Entomology for the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, a lecturer at Duke University, and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. The Royal Swedish Academy awarded Wilson the Crafoord Prize. He was a humanist laureate of the International Academy of Humanism. He was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction (for On Human Nature in 1979, and The Ants in 1991) and a New York Times bestselling author for The Social Conquest of Earth, Letters to a Young Scientist, and The Meaning of Human Existence.
Wilson’s work received both praise and criticism during his lifetime. His 1975 book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis was a particular flashpoint for controversy, and drew criticism from the Sociobiology Study Group. Wilson’s interpretation of the theory of evolution resulted in a widely reported dispute with Richard Dawkins about multilevel selection theory. Examinations of his letters after his death revealed that he had supported the psychologist J. Philippe Rushton, whose work on race and intelligence is widely regarded by the scientific community as deeply flawed and racist.
