Wednesday, January 15, 2014

A Pro-Choice China

"Imagine what a couple might pay to ensure that they get the best out of 10 or 50 possible offspring, optimizing over their choice of heritable attributes,” he [Bowen Zhao], wrote on his blog, comparing the cost of a Harvard degree or private school with the few thousand dollars it takes to fertilize and implant embryos."

Bowen Zhao is the head of Shenzhen-based CG B.G.I,, formerly called Beijing Genomics Institute, the world’s largest genetic-research center, currently mapping the genes of math geniuses.
'There are going to be countries that say this is part of our national health-care service and everyone is doing it,” he told the New Yorker. “And eventually it would become unstoppable, because the countries that initially outlawed it would have to come around. How could they not?”
On the bright side, always looking for positive signs from our trade partner, this could mean China is not happy with Dennis Rodman's pal, North Korea's Kim Jong Un. Wild guess.

Chinese firm hunting for the 'maths gene' than could one day allow parents to pick their smartest embryos

20 comments:

deborah said...

What are we going to do tonight, Brain?

What we do every night, Pinky, try and take over the world.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

When the Chinese get around to wanting girls it'll be time to select for violinists.

JAL said...

Assumption being that "smart" = good human.

hahaha

edutcher said...

Heinrich and Reinhard nod.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Thanks to the internet what once would have been state secret or something, is now out in the open. Bright side.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I visited Harvard a while back and there were adverts posted looking for potential sperm donors. Height, weight, age, IQ, education, that sort of thing.

It looked legit and it ocurred to me that Harvard would be a pretty good place to solicit marketable sperm.

Still, there had to be more to it than that. There had to be a more thorough screening process later on and I figured if you got so far as the last round that was when they whipped out the ruler.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Of course, it also ocurred to me that the adverts might have just been clever homos looking for sex.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Extra points for the tea leave ;)

Known Unknown said...

When everyone is smart then no one will be smart.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

If they can find the maths predictive genes, what is to stop them from finding the gay predictive genes?

Will the American left still be "pro choice?"

deborah said...

EMD, when everyone is smart it's going to be one uptight world.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

See? This is how I know I'm not an anti-gay bigot. If an angel of the Lord came down from Heaven and told me tht I could be a 21 year old guy, handsome, athletic, smart, rich and happy . . . but I'd have to be a homo . . . I'd take the deal.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Imagine living in a world where women want to have sex with you as much as you want to have sex with them.

Tell me that wouldn't be totally awesome.

deborah said...

"Imagine living in a world where women want to have sex with you as much as you want to have sex with them.

Tell me that wouldn't be totally awesome."

The most beautiful women would have the nicest caves.

ricpic said...

How did it come to be that smartness is valued more highly than say a pleasant disposition? You gals should know that that's what men go for in a woman. I mean you should know it but you obviously, with exceptions, don't.

deborah said...

Don't hate me because I'm brilliant.

Trooper York said...

Beautiful woman always have nice caves.

Usually they are shaved and sweet smelling.

Except of course for Joanna Krupa.

Trooper York said...

Now we have to go by Brandi Glanville's description of Joanna's cave so that might be problematic.

Brandi's cave would be an entirely different story. It would smell like a mountain steam. Where thousands of salmon had spawned and died.

Oh and lot's of bear shit.


Icepick said...

Lem, it's hardly been kept a secret. One of BGI's principles is an American physicist/ entrepreneur named Stephen Hsu. He helpfully blogs about what BGI is doing (and other things) on his blog,

Information Processing

Search the bgi tag for more. (I'm not sure how zealous Hsu is about tagging, but I believe he is probably rather thorough.)

Hsu made a small bundle with a tech start-up back when, then went on to use his CalTech PhD in physics to study black holes and such. He's now into genomics as well. He's also into wrestling and MMA (the wrestling interest comes from growing up in Iowa, and the MMA interest grows out of that) and played high school football as well. All around polymath.

Icepick said...

And by small bundle, I mean that he doesn't have to work anymore, but he isn't worth a billion either.