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Chinese Clinic Uses DNA Tests To Predict Kids' Talents
Death Metal writes with this excerpt from CNN:
"About 30 children aged 3 to 12 years old and their parents are participating in a new program that uses DNA testing to identify genetic gifts and predict the future. ... The test is conducted by the Shanghai Biochip Corporation. Scientists claim a simple saliva swab collects as many as 10,000 cells that enable them to isolate eleven different genes. By taking a closer look at the genetic codes, they say they can extract information about a child's IQ, emotional control, focus, memory, athletic ability and more. For about $880, Chinese parents can sign their kids up for the test and five days of summer camp in Chongqing, where the children will be evaluated in various settings from sports to art. The scientific results, combined with observations by experts throughout the week, will be used to make recommendations to parents about what their child should pursue."
It's only a small step from testing for these purported genes in kids, to testing for 'em in embryo bits. Then we get eugenics and kid selection, and surprise, there's a superhuman race inheriting the earth. *shrug* I think we all know how these things go.
Note: I was 13 when I wrote most of this. Take with several grains of salt.
they say they can extract information about a child's IQ
A quick scan over the summary and spotting that set off my bullshit alarms. The genes that go in to shaping someones intelligence and IQ are likely to be multitude, and we have virtually no idea how the genes, working together, come to influence ones IQ.
Nicely done China, you have discovered the well documented Pygmalion Effect. This is so common in society. For example, in Chinese culture there is significant attention paid to the oldest son. He's expected to do better, to succeed and eventually become wealthy. So he's encouraged. This encouragement and positive reinforcement can cause the child to succeed. Whereas other children are not given the same expectations and relatively do poorer.
So you these people will take their kid to this clinic, who will say, "this kid should become a scientist." Then the parents will do whatever it takes to make the kid a scientist. Possibly ignoring the signs that he/she might be attuned to being a musician or artist.
In other news... Looks like the Chinese have also watched and decided to implement in real life the movie Gattaca.
"My kid has better genes than yours and I can prove it..."
I remember reading a big article in the German science magazine "Spektrum der Wissenschaft", that there is no such thing as innate talent.
They tried to find out, what made geniuses geniuses. And they found, that it's not relevant what you were born with.
What is relevant, is to keep yourself in proper balance between choosing too hard and too easy tasks to grow from. The closer this balance is to your abilities, the faster your abilities will grow. I can also say from my own experience, that it's true.
The other factor is, to be able to structure your thoughts and knowledge. Even for sports.
For example in chess, a beginner would try to keep the position of every figure in his mind,
While an advanced player might store the same state as "the Someguy move" with "the Otherguy variation" and "this pawn is advanced one field".
And a masterful player would most likely think of it as "the Fooguy setup" with "the Barguy move" and "this pawn doing the Bazguy-style attack".
So you put your thoughts into sets that fit in one of the eight (on average) short-term memory "registers" you have. And to create many associations in your long-term memory, so you can quickly get to many related things.
That's all there is to geniuses. So whatever someone told you about you being unable to do: As long as it is still physically possible (i.e. you're not 75 and trying to win an Olympic medal for 100m running), you can do it!
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Ok this sounds a bit like B.S. Besides, being more of a trans-humanist I look forward to a future where we can modify our bodies to posses any of the biochemical advantages that are today delivered by genetics. Look at something like Viagra. Before it came along people thought that not being able to get a stiffy was all in one's mind. Now anyone of any age can get one without having to read a ton of self-help books and years of Freudian psychoanalysis B.S. It will be hard for people to accept but the same thing will probably soon happen with athletic ability and intelligence. Soon the dream of everyone becoming what they dreamed of being but never had the natural ability to do will be realized. It will still take hard work, but at least it will be possible and those with genetic gifts will move up to an as yet undreamed of level of human potential.
They can do that in the Gene Projection now? Wow! Back in my day we had to wait until we were 16 to take the G.O.A.T. and find all that out!
Incidently, I am in Shanghai. And working in biology. I have heard of these clinics (there seem to be several), because they
are picking up up young graduates from the Universities to do the work. They pay well (compared to what the graduates get when
they do a postdoc), but obviously more money will disappear in the pockets of the managers/directors of said clinics.
From a biological standpoint, the whole thing is a scam. Perhaps they can predict some things a little bit, but from what I have seen I think they just tell the people what they want to hear.
Chinese easily fall for this kind of thing. Their (often only) child is their little emperor, and the newly rich (which are also still poorly educated) spend their whole income on them. Nevertheless, i guess it stimulates the economy, so we will be seeing this kind of things for a while (if you want to get rich quick and have no conscience, come to China!).
If your parents are stupid enough to pay for this, you're obviously from the shallow end of the gene pool as well, though you can be assured that the parents will ALL be told that their kids are above average - which is a statistical impossibility in a large-enough sample, but hey, there's one born every minute ... or in China's case 34.69 every minute*
* 1,330,044,544 / 1000 * 13.71 / 365 / 24 / 60 (chinese pop / 1000 / birth rate per thousand per annum / 365 days / 24 hours / 60 minutes :-)
how do they handle things when you find out that you have the next Mao Zedong or Stalin?
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Which would be a good thing. Why wait thousands of years for humans to evolve (if at all - it's not the super intelligent scientists and other successful people who have the most kids, quite the contrary) if you could make the jump right now, with much more impact? And I wouldn't even worry too much about the transition phase and conflicts between modified and unmodified people too much either - if we can genetically engineer unborn humans today, we can genetically engineer and otherwise modify already living humans tomorrow.
A good education is a bit like a STD - it makes you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and gives you a desire to spread it.
Which would be a good thing. Why wait thousands of years for humans to evolve (if at all - it's not the super intelligent scientists and other successful people who have the most kids, quite the contrary)
You assume genetics is the only determinant of intelligence.
if you could make the jump right now, with much more impact?
For the same reason you don't hand an oxyacetylene torch (or administrator access to a company network) to a five-year-old and ask why he should wait until he's an adult to start learning marketable skills. We still don't know enough about genetics to start testing for more than a handful of things, and definitely don't know enough to start tweaking things in a living, thinking human being. Trying it now is just driving nails with a wrecking ball.