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Notes -
That's just silly.
There's still art and culture, and science for men and women of leisure to create and experience.
All of Shakespeare's descendants died out in the 17th century, do you believe that his contributions to art aren't a good enough legacy to leave behind? Or Newton and Washington, who had no biological children, and yet I challenge you to find two men who made more of a lasting impact on the world.
As far as we know Jesus of Nazareth had no biological children, and look at his impact on history. And Julius Ceasar's two confirmed biological children, Julia and Caesarion had far less impact on history than his adopted son. Who was a bigger legacy for Socrates, Plato or his biological children Lamprocles, Sophroniscus, and Menexenus?
Eugenics is all well and good in the long run, and I don't think most people really objects to voluntary eugenics to remove genetically influenced diseases from the population. But I think even when you have two aristocratic people of "good stock" you're often going to get a Commodus, historically speaking. Dune is partially fantasy, because the kind of organization and longevity needed to pull off a multigeneration eugenics program on that scale would tend to make the actual people being produced kind of redundant.
But also, I think that eugenics is the retreat of the lazy and unexceptional. Unless you have produced a master work or an empire that will long outlive you, how lame is it to be proud that you have "good genes" with nothing to actually back it up? Go out and prove you have great genes, and give us another great man of history to look up to!
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