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parrhesia  1yr ago (parrhesia.substack.com)   2203 thread views

Making Cognitive Enhancement Palatable

parrhesia.substack.com

SS: I think that cognitive genetic enhancement is important for ensuring we have a better and lasting future. Many people have an intuitive dislike for the idea of using genetic enhancement to make a baby smarter but have little issue with in vitro fertilization (IVF). I try to build from a foundation of the acceptable practice of IVF to PGT-P for IQ.

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The current set of parents are not going to be IQ 120. That's the problem. And the whole "a rising tide lifts all boats" model has been shown not to work. Higher intelligence is valuable in part because of scarcity. When everyone is smart, then we hit the treadmill: everything has now been boosted up a step. Remember the credentialism debate? Job that you could get with no qualifications except a strong back and willingness to work hard -> job now needs high school diploma -> job now needs some form of degree/further education -> job has been automated away because machines are cheaper and faster.

120 will become the new 85. That's what you are not seeing. As for the "more smart people = more productivity = more PMC jobs", how is that working out with the wave of tech layoffs starting right now? When there's an economic downturn, "stock price valuation" becomes a lot more important than "we have all these smart people working for us that we have employed due to DEI initiatives". They trim down the workforce to the bone, and being smart and productive now means you are expected to do the work of two people.

I'm sceptical, because all this moon-shot optimism of the past has turned out very differently in reality. "Increased automation means people will have so much leisure time!" No, increased automation meant "now that we can be in communication with the other side of the world, you have to work weirder hours so you can be there when the markets in Tokyo open" and all the "yeah you're expected to work 60+ hours starting out to get anywhere in your career".

Same with IQ enhancement: yes, it will have benefits. No, the benefits will stay with the usual people and not "now everyone is a minimum of IQ 120, poverty is solved!" We've been 'solving' poverty for a long time, and yet it still lingers on.

120 might be the new 85 in terms of the relative position in society but they will still not be as violent, or stupid as an 85.

And the economy will change as economies are dynamic, if everybody is > 120 then some of the more entrepreneurial 120s will create employment for the people around that IQ level.

Maybe you are just afraid of competition.

Can't make it without an artificial class barrier to keep out the proles who weren't raised middle class?

120 will become the new 85.

There was Homo erectus once. Now it's Homo sapiens. When the latter replaced the former, did "120 become the new 85"? Do the sapiens enjoy better society?

No, increased automation meant "now that we can be in communication with the other side of the world, you have to work weirder hours so you can be there when the markets in Tokyo open"

19th century, no automation: you die from hunger.

I'm sceptical, because all this moon-shot optimism of the past has turned out very differently in reality. "Increased automation means people will have so much leisure time!" No, increased automation meant

It actually meant exactly that. People work way less hours now. (That's not even addressing the nature of work, namely that they're not working nearly as much in physically harmful and toxic environments, hell, even janitors today have less demeaning tools).

Not everything is a zero-sum game. No, really.

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