"VIII. Potential children are in abundant supply and the world is overpopulated with people without a future. Every child brought into this world should be of the finest intellect possible, and free of genetic diseases or abnormalities. Every generation needs to be an incremental step in the evolution to a new species. The only traits to be altered during the first genesis shall be an increase in overall intelligence, typical intellectual engagement(TIE), and patriotism. Other behavioral traits must only be altered when there is no longer a danger from competitive species and our knowledge of our species has progressed to a state of understanding that makes behavioral traits modification beyond question. Until then, we must retain the full spectrum of human variation for the sake of higher adaptability and survivability."

Eugenics and Trait Selection

"The destiny of the human race is to widen the gap separating it from the lower races of animals." -- Friedrich Nietzsche

If we are to create a new, "enhanced" species, we first need to determine which traits and characteristics have to be enhanced. It is practically impossible, and undesirable, to enhance via selection all or a lot of traits that vary in humans. That is, we must focus solely on a few, fundamental traits otherwise we may end up with in-breeding depression, undesirable side effects, and a severe loss of genetic/behavioral diversity(which can be an adaptability problem). We must make sure to keep a satisfactory variability in other traits because it happens to be one of the essential adaptive characteristics of a species or population: its inner variability and, consequently, its ability to adapt to various environments.

Apart from this flexibility which we must maintain, there must be some other traits that we could want to improve in order to enhance the survivability and achievement potential of the species -- without impeding its adaptability. The value of personality traits such as introversion and extroversion, logical versus creative inclinations, verbal versus mathematical/visuo-spatial intelligence, and strong ego versus weak ego are highly dependant on the situation and the environment -- and should be kept diverse within the population. The traits that need to be enhanced are those that have a relatively universal and absolute value, especially as far as the group's strategy is concerned. I can think of three traits that have this importance.

Intelligence

Intelligence, or cognitive ability, is the prerequisite for creating a higher species with a higher intellect. That is, even if you have the greatest personality traits and the greatest motivation, if you have an unsatisfactory degree of intelligence, you will not be successful in highly intellectual domains such as science and technology. Cognitive ability is a prerequisite for the maintenance of higher civilization and higher technology. Intelligence also appears to be a prerequisite for creative genius -- virtually every known genius has had a particularly high IQ. Some estimate the IQ threshold for "genius" to be at about 140.

Apart from its effect on inviduals, a high average intelligence for a group is an advantage in that it tends to cause more law-abidingness, more unity, more efficiency and more harmony. Several variables correlate positively with IQ, such as:

- Job performance[Jensen, 1998]
- Scholastic achievement[Jensen, 1980, Chapter 8; Jensen, 1991, 1993; Matarazzo, 1972, Chapter 12; Snow & Yalow, 1982; Thorndike, 1984]
- Law-Abidigness[Herrstein & Murray, 1994, Chapter 11; Hirschi & Hindelang, 1977; Gordon, 1975, 1987; Wilson & Herrstein, 1985; Levin, 1997, Chapter 9; The Brown University Child Behavior and Development Letter, August 1990 v6 n8 p2(1)]
- Attained socio-economic status and financial income[Jensen, 1998, pp. 491-494, 568; Rushton, 1997; Murray, 1995; Duncan et al., 1972]
- Learning ability[Gettinger, 1984; Christal, 1991; Jensen, 1998, pp. 276-277]
- Altruism[Brand, 1987; Rushton, 1997]
- Creativity[Brand, 1987]
- Genius and eminence[Brand, 1987]
- Longevity and health[Brand, 1987]
- Depth and diversity of interests[Brand, 1987]
etc.

[See also Mainstream Science on Intelligence, from The Wall Street Journal]

As IQ researcher Linda Gottfredson put it, "Life is an IQ test."

More importantly, intelligence is advantageous in virtually every situation, in every environment. It is difficult for me to think of even one situation where IQ will be actually disadvantageous to an individual, whereas I can think of thousands of situations where a higher IQ would be quite helpful. Moreover, increasing the IQ doesn't appear to increase the frequency of any other undesired trait as a side effect(i.e. genetic links, pleitropic genes, assortative mating, etc.), other than myopia, and height/weight ratio -- both of which are relatively unimportant compared to overall intelligence.

Typical Intellectual Engagement(TIE)

Typical Intellectual Engagement is, as its name implies, the average, daily intellectual engagement and activity of an individual. Put simply, you can think of TIE as your degree of "Nerdishness". Measuring your Typical Intellectual Engagement boils down to asking how much of a nerd(not necessarily in the pejorative sense of the word, though) you are -- or how deep and diverse are your intellectual interests.

Without this quality, an extremely gifted individual in IQ can be a pretty average person(but always with the ability to adapt much more easily than the average to intellectually demanding situations). The combination of both(i.e. high IQ and high TIE), however, is the "stuff" geniuses are made of.

Indeed, why have a particularly keen brain if you don't use it much ?

Moreover, like intelligence, I think a good deal of intellectual interest is generally an advantageous thing to have. For the strategy of an intellectually, technologically, scientifically, rationally, futuristically oriented society(which the Promethean society intends to be), TIE is a practically necessary behavioral trait.

Ethnocentrism

This one is for purely pragmatic purposes: that is, without it, Prometheism, or any kind of ethnic group, cannot work. We need ethnocentrism, at least to some extent, in order to maintain our group together and to have a relatively united will. Additionally, ethnocentrism provides group cohesion, which tends to enhance the group's synergy.

In any case, selection in favor of ethnocentrism will happen naturally to some degree, because those who lack ethnocentrism or do not wish to belong to our group will leave, or be invited to do so. They will thereby leave the Promethean gene pool, effectively selecting against lack of patriotism or allegiance to the group. Hence this trait will be naturally selected for, just like it was probably naturally selected for in Judaism.

Thus, in a sense, Nietzsche was right. Our destiny is to widen the gap that separates us from lower animals, and that gap is essentially: Intelligence, Intellectual activity, Reason -- call it whatever you want. It is the Promethean gift of fire. It is what made us so great compared to lower animals, it is what allowed us to create higher civilizations, it is what allowed us to create technology and to reach the moon, and -- more pragmatically -- it is what gives us the power to exterminate any other species on earth as we see fit, while the latter could not do the same to us. Of course, there is no reason to do such a thing, but it shows the extent to which we have the power over our surroundings, more than vice versa -- in any case of conflict, our species is likely to win over any other species(and its advantage is obviously not limited to inter-species competition). In other words, it all comes down to the same advantages: higher probability of survival, higher achievement potential. Two sides of the same medal, the objective, pragmatic side(probability of survival), and the subjective, spiritual side(cultural, scientific, artistic achievement).

Simon Ouellette
09/01/2001

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