I asked Google's Artificial Intelligence a question about an extremely controversial topic, eugenics, but one that is especially controversial from a "left-leaning" perspective. And as expected, it gave me the answer I imagined, which corroborates the "left-leaning" viewpoint, since AI is not a highly rational machine, created to be free from any human bias, and replicates the opinions and beliefs of its creators, even more so in relation to these so-called controversial topics.
I did this with the purpose of criticizing each part of its answer. Without further ado, I will try to show how misguided the "common/prevailing academic sense" is regarding eugenics, as reflected in an AI response...
"Eugenics is not viable to implement primarily for ethical, moral, and scientific reasons, and is widely rejected by the global community. It is based on pseudoscientific premises and violates the fundamental principles of human rights and the dignity of the human person."
First introductory excerpt from Google's Artificial Intelligence response (in Portuguese).
Let's see...
Eugenics is "widely rejected by the 'global community'," that's true. However, this rejection is the result of decades of heavy indoctrination or tacit brainwashing. It's not a natural convergence that a human majority arrived at on its own, without these dirty tactics of ideological submission, through emotional blackmail and/or social pressure, directing its judgment.
Still, I have no doubt that if this indoctrination is reversed in the future, the majority of this "global community" will return to believing in the viability of eugenics, whether they only reject it publicly or who "they" consider as the "global community"—the majority of human beings or majorities of specific groups?
We will see more about what these supposed pseudoscientific premises below...
And what violates "human rights." We will also see how misguided the ideology behind these "rights" can be...
"Ethical and Moral Unviability
Violates Human Rights: Historical eugenics has resulted in atrocities such as forced sterilizations, segregation, racial purity laws (such as the Nuremberg Laws in Nazi Germany), and genocide. Such practices violate the right to life, liberty, and equality, as enshrined in global constitutions and codes of ethics, such as the Nuremberg Code."
"Historical freedom" is also associated with a lot of atrocities. Even the word "love." This is one of the main moral fallacies regarding eugenics, that it is absolutely immoral, as if an abstract word didn't need context to be moralized. And even when its concept is analyzed, it cannot be condemned.
"Atrocities" like forced sterilization...
As if every case of forced sterilization were a "crime against human rights"... As if EVERY human being with the absolute right to procreate is a "respect for human rights." But what if the individual has no capacity to care for their hypothetical or actual descendants, due to socioeconomic, but also cognitive, moral and/or psychiatric issues???
They exist and are not few.
And I'm not even commenting on the importance of biology and heredity in human behavior, which I will discuss further below....
Furthermore, it was thanks to a state-run birth control program that China did not experience a population explosion during the second half of the 20th century. Even if it wasn't carried out in the most ethical way, let's still imagine the human tragedy that would occur without this control, and which, incidentally, is about to happen on the poorest continent in the world, Africa...
"Segregation"
So, keeping individuals who commit crimes, especially heinous crimes, imprisoned is an atrocity against the human species??? Yes, because the imprisonment of individuals who commit crimes is a form of segregation...
Is segregation ALWAYS bad??
Don't we seek to segregate ourselves from others we dislike or perceive as incompatible with coexistence??
It doesn't have to be the act of isolating oneself spatially; one can isolate oneself emotionally, for example, even if the person is right next to you...
The same question I asked regarding eugenics, I ask here regarding segregation.
I've already written about this and shown that self-segregation, besides being very common, is the complete opposite of being against a human right...
"Racial purity and genocide"
Or would it be "racial purity = genocide"???
But if a human group wants to establish, maintain, or reinforce ethnic or racial endogamy behaviors, without this resulting in unequivocal oppression of other groups, is it infringing a human right?? So is the human right to freedom of association unethical??
As for genocide, well, "freedom" is ALSO historically associated with this cruelty.
Inciting and encouraging the extinction of a population through racial mixing and mass immigration to their countries (where they are the majority), isn't that a form of genocide? Isn't that what's happening to white European populations?
"Discrimination and Prejudice: Eugenic logic fosters racism, xenophobia, misogyny, LGBTphobia, and ableism by labeling certain characteristics or groups of people as "inferior" or "unfit."
Any logic can incite prejudice. But what is truly prejudice or exaggeration, untruth... and what is truth?
Saying that homosexuality is not the same as heterosexuality is prejudice or truth?
I myself, a homobisexual man, agree that my sexuality is not ideal in evolutionary and collective terms, since one must be, at a minimum, bisexual to be part of a reproductively active population. I also agree that an "LGBT" minority is not problematic. But it's not possible to agree that the opposite wouldn't be either. The reasons are obvious, and this doesn't mean I want us to disappear from the radar. It doesn't mean I think my sexual orientation isn't ideal for me, because when I agree that it isn't, I'm not referring to myself or from an individual perspective.
But "eugenic logic" is not necessary to reach obvious conclusions. Impartial and objective observations and assessments are sufficient. Thus, it is not difficult to see that, for example, Down syndrome, however sympathetic and loving most of its bearers may be, is still a health condition that, in addition to affecting cognitive aspects, also impairs other aspects, making their lives more challenging, with higher risks of complications, such as premature death.
It is clear that, from a broader and more conclusive perspective of comparative observation, Down syndrome is an "inferior" condition. And this should not imply that its bearers are inferiorized if they are not at fault. Hence the importance of separating the condition from the bearer, especially in these cases. The same can be said, but in a slightly less conclusive way, about homosexuality, of being "inferior" mainly in relation to heterosexuality. Now, legitimate prejudice, especially in the sense of generalized dehumanization of groups, which this analysis can generate, is more the result of personal feelings of certain individuals, also These reflections stem from their contextualized personality traits and levels of moral discernment, rather than from a supposed sovereign "eugenic logic" over passions and thoughts. In other words, even if the concept of eugenics had never emerged, these people would continue to think this way. Indeed, long before eugenics emerged as a concept...
The same can be said about any other criterion cited for group comparison, such as race or ethnicity.
Furthermore, in recent decades, it has become possible to identify traits of Down syndrome in fetuses, which has resulted in the option of abortion in most cases where this service is offered or requested. Yet I am not seeing any significant pressure from the "global community opposed to eugenics" to inhibit or prohibit this practice... Is it really against it, or is it just in discourse?
It's funny that I, who definitely problematize this rejection of eugenics quite a bit, despite also knowing that it's complex to condemn it completely, was disgusted and fearful to learn that most of the identified fetuses... Pregnancies involving Down syndrome have been aborted. While I am not necessarily for or against any eugenic practice, I am particularly concerned that the practice could take this form. That is, that technology gives too much power to parents or progenitors, many of whom would lack the sound judgment to genetically shape their future children, especially according to their desires, in a scenario where genetic engineering becomes possible and accessible.
It is still complex to completely prohibit the abortion of a fetus based on the possibility of identifying traits of congenital disorders or conditions, such as Down syndrome. After all, it is also important to put oneself in the place of a father or mother and consider, in a situation of never having cared for a person with a disability that prevents them from leading a minimally independent life, whether they would be able to do so, knowing that it usually consumes a great deal of the caregiver's attention and time, and not only during childhood and adolescence...
Furthermore, I also consider as a possible ethical solution to this dilemma that the groups most interested in preserving a certain phenotype... They should engage in doing so, instead of trying to transfer certain responsibilities to those who demonstrate an inability to accept them. From there, the right of a couple or a pregnant woman to choose abortion would not be overridden, but the "risk" of extinction of a phenotype would also be reduced.
My greatest criticism/of this type of eugenics, which I have called "market eugenics," besides the potential to give excessive power to progenitors or parents regarding the possibility of shaping their future descendants, is also based on a scenario in which other categories of phenotypes that are more objectively or rationally undesirable remain present and reproductively available, such as antisocial personality disorders. Therefore, my strong impression of the mass abortion of fetuses with Down syndrome is that, however desirable it may be that this condition does not continue to appear in future generations, preventing the suffering of future carriers and their relatives, not seeking any means to prevent antisocial personality phenotypes from continuing to perpetuate themselves, even knowing their extremely negative historical legacy and their consequences in the present, seems more like a case of "social hygiene" and "aesthetics" than a genuine attempt to improve human society in an ethical and objective way. Even in the case of Down syndrome, I think that if eugenics were limited to certain aspects of human biology, those that are more morally problematic, especially those mentioned, conditions of this type could still be preserved. But the simple fact that most couples or pregnant mothers who have access to this service choose abortion shows that the anti-eugenic discourse seems to be more limited to certain anti-eugenic groups in "higher education" than to constitute a consensus of public opinion or the majority of human beings. What may complicate this majority's ability to reach a more consistent conclusion about the viability of eugenics is precisely the idea that it may not be fully applicable, primarily because of the discursive dominance of these anti-eugenic groups.
This situation also reveals or reinforces the reality of the hypocrisy, or ignorance, of anti-eugenic discourse, since it is an absolutely primal impulse in all of us to seek what we consider best, differing especially in how we define this "best," or in how subjective or objective our concepts and criteria are. But it is certain that this impulse permeates all our choices: from the fruit we choose at the supermarket to the type of partner we prefer and/or end up relating to, as well as the characteristics we would like our descendants (hypothetical or real) to possess, with eugenics being a thought or idea entirely derived from this same principle of preference for quality.
"Objectification of the Individual: Treats human beings as objects to be "improved" or discarded for the sake of a supposed arbitrary "collective good," ignoring the uniqueness and intrinsic value of each individual."
EACH individual
Would Adolf Hitler and Benjamin Netanyahu also fall under this "each individual" category? So, EVERY human individual, even those who commit heinous crimes, should be treated with the same respect for their rights as others???
"A supposed arbitrary collective good"
If mental traits are primarily and essentially¹ hereditary, including antisocial personality traits, and individuals who express them more consistently or intensely are the most likely to transmit them* to their descendants, wouldn't it be more appropriate to inhibit them from procreating?? And wouldn't that have positive consequences for collective well-being??
¹ excluding when they are acquired, such as through brain injury.
* Or also other categories of disorders.
Ah, no, because according to "AI," which believes in blank slate, it is not possible to predict irrationally antisocial tendencies in human individuals...
But wouldn't this ode to individualism be too radical and evolutionarily unrealistic?? Since every species evolves and adapts precisely through selective processes, that is, from a collective and not individual level...
I don't see how it's problematic to consider the "uniqueness of the individual" or of "life" and, at the same time, understand that a population needs to present a balance favorable to its adaptation and evolution, and this implies having control over it/its groups, subgroups and/or individuals. And if social and historical factors have been these control mechanisms, eugenics could represent, both in the most positive sense (balanced or rational, balanced...), and in the most negative, an advance without contenders for human autonomy over its own destiny...
"Opposition from Bioethics: The global bioethics community vehemently rejects eugenics, establishing codes of medical ethics that prohibit genetic manipulation for eugenic or discriminatory purposes."
The "global bioethics community" is basically one of the many SECTS of supposed experts who dominate a branch of science/philosophy to impose their deviant ideology precisely against the most important scientific and philosophical values.
"They prohibit genetic manipulation"
But abortion of fetuses with Down syndrome "is okay" for now...
"Scientific Unfeasibility
Pseudoscientific Basis: Original eugenics was developed based on a flawed and simplistic understanding of heredity and genetics, often distorting science to justify social and racial prejudices."
This was the understanding of what was known about genetics and heredity at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Whether it is flawed or simplistic was not considered so at the time. This is a typical prejudice of those who live in the present and accuse those who lived in the past of ignorance, even more so in relation to a branch of science that, at the time in question, was in its early stages. Furthermore, the understanding of many who claim to be against eugenics and who, in fact, make up the core of those who think of themselves and are also called "bioethicists" (by others ideologically related), embedded in universities, seems to me just as flawed and simplistic, because the eugenicists of the past, at least, did not deny the factual validity of the most basic aspects of the related topics, such as the predominant influence of biology or genetics on human development and behavior...
One genetic pattern that could, if not make eugenic practice unfeasible, at least make it more complex, is pleiotropy, which is a tendency, seemingly very common, for genes to mutually influence each other, organizing themselves as networks of proximity, where the selection of a particular set of genes (or phenotypic characteristics) can generate the unintentional selection of another set of genes. For example, selection for high cognitive ability can increase the phenotypic frequency of the autism spectrum. But this also does not mean that these unexpected (or predictable) effects cannot be controlled in a scenario of full eugenic practice. This is not negatively deterministic. In fact, more "natural" and/or random historical processes that could be considered variably eugenic, due to exhibiting patterns of selective and qualitative direction, seem to have occurred in human societies. For example, the probable increase in cognitive abilities of populations in countries like the United Kingdom**, over generations, Especially from the mercantilist period onwards, with the economic dominance of the bourgeois class and its exponential growth, that is, of the middle class, evidence primarily supported by the mortality differential between social classes (higher infant and general mortality among the poorest compared to other social groups, which would have resulted in this difference) that lasted for centuries and was accompanied by the sustained growth of the British population until the beginning of the 20th century.
Source: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/centres/cage/publications/workingpapers/2019/childlessness_celibacy_and_net_fertility_in_pre_industrial_england_the_middle_class_evolutionary_advantage/
https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/100923/1/Childlessness_celibacy_and_net_fertility_in_pre_industrial_England.pdf
"To justify social/racial prejudices"
Even if there is some truth to this, it is always important to know how true a statement is: in this case, beyond what proponents of eugenics thought or think, in the search for the truth of the facts. For if it is true that there are upper-class individuals who have prejudices against lower-class individuals, it is also true that lower-class individuals, on average, have lower cognitive abilities and are disproportionately represented in crime statistics, as well as in psychiatric case statistics... The same can be said in relation to the prejudices of the most "racist".
Prejudice, in its purest sense, of pejorative generalization of a group, individual, country..., is always problematic, even more so when it does not reflect reality. But "white lies" used to convey supposed kindness or empathy are also not the most correct approach, and we are seeing very negative consequences as they leave the abstract realm of beautiful speeches and become public policies, political strategies, or consequences thereof. For example, the ongoing dysgenics, the opposite of eugenics, where traits considered negative, even more so if objectively considered, such as low cognitive ability, are under positive selection, and opposite, more desirable traits are under negative selection or exponentially reduced frequency. The ideal, therefore, and as usual, is balance, and in this context, it means not falling into the prejudice of generalizing about a group when it is not really possible to do so without being fallacious (especially when referring to a vaguely defined group, generally more diverse than in relation to more strictly defined groups). But also not falling into the other error of lying to "please," even more so when it comes to a truth that may be or sound offensive to certain groups.
"Genetic Complexity: Most human characteristics, including intelligence, personality, and even susceptibility to many diseases, is extremely complex and influenced by an intricate interaction of multiple genes and environmental factors, and not by a single 'master gene' that could be easily controlled."
EXTREMELY complex
Is it really??
But then why do couples of highly intelligent individuals have a greater chance of having highly intelligent children than couples of less intelligent individuals?? And the same pattern for less intelligent couples...
There are serious diseases that are hereditary, such as Huntington's disease, a very serious and incurable neurodegenerative disease. Would it be unethical to suggest or try to persuade people who test genetically positive for this disease to sterilized themselves??
Psychiatric illnesses also tend to have a high degree of heritability, although it is less significant than that of the disease above. Still, wouldn't it be better to suggest the same for these individuals?? Would it bring less risk of suffering into this world??
And you don't have to go far from health, because a Low cognitive ability, in general, although not a disease or disorder, tends to be associated with a series of problems of various kinds, even more so when the phenotype manifests at the population level and not just individually. This is the case for practically every very poor country, if it is not only a matter of having a corrupt political and economic "elite," going through crises of political instability, or having few natural resources, but also of its population having a lower collective potential of capabilities compared to other countries, and even if its social problems are direct reflections of its contextualized characteristics and not just historical contexts supposedly parallel to them. A very interesting example is the case of North Korea, which, despite being extremely poor, has produced scientific achievements at the level of an intermediate to rich country, probably because it has a high cognitive potential (similar to that of South Korea). And if we know that intelligence is also primarily determined by heredity...
In short, it's not that complex...
I've already written some good texts problematizing the criticism leveled against eugenics and how "surprisingly" beneficial it could be if applied ethically. I've suggested that, instead of a scenario where all individuals or families identified as having "a predominance of objectively undesirable traits" were forced to undergo sterilization, more targeted and persuasive measures should be adopted, including primary benefits for those selected, for example, offering many social and economic advantages as compensation both to those whose reproductive potential is limited and to those whose potential is encouraged, like a specific one-child policy, or a policy of up to two children in the first group and two or more children for the second, but seeking to discourage super-fertility for ecological reasons, and also for primarily logical reasons: the balance of population growth and size. And so, another myth about eugenics would be demonstrated in practice: that it could only be practiced in a radical or extreme way.
"Single gene"
"Even" AI, for now, "doesn't know" how the genetic structure of cognitive and psychological phenotypes is fully organized. Furthermore, it doesn't seem to me that most "eugenicists" believe that every genetic phenotype is governed by only one master gene. A typical prejudiced deduction of "anti-eugenicists" about "eugenicists"...
"Random Gene Pool": Random genetic variability (the gene pool) is crucial for the health and long-term survival of the human species. The attempt to eliminate this variability or to artificially select "superior characteristics" could, in fact, weaken human adaptability''.
But do all eugenicists, or most of them, think about eliminating a large part of human genetic diversity?
So, Huntington's disease and autism, especially autism levels 2 and 3, are fundamental to the variability and health of human populations?
But shouldn't the reduction of the number of white people to critical levels, and the same for those with high cognitive abilities of any kind, also be seen as problems related to the potentially harmful reduction of human genetic diversity?
"COULD"
So, eugenics basically means "significant reduction of genetic diversity"? Or is this "could" just loose speculation?
But wouldn't an excess of diversity also be good?
I could bet heavily, if I had enough money, that many of those who claim to be against any practice of eugenics are paying little or no attention to the real risk of..and the extinction of the "white race"... On the contrary, they are the ones most encouraging it... And who would problematize to the nth degree the reality of the primary and predominant heredity of human intelligence to justify that nothing is done to reverse certain dysgenic tendencies. Of course, they would say that "we are all equal in abilities" and that "a quality education is enough" in unison...
"In short, eugenics is an obsolete concept, scientifically unfounded and morally condemnable, which has led to historical crimes against humanity. Current genetic technology is focused on gene therapy to cure diseases, respecting dignity and individual rights, and not on mass selective practices."
"Obsolete"
Who determined its conceptual obsolescence??
So, the understanding that selective processes and heredity also represent an important part of the evolution of our species and that it would be interesting to seek to apply it at a social level is something that has completely remained in the past??
But if the "eugenicists" are more correct about their beliefs than the "anti-eugenicists," then won't the ongoing dysgenics in practically the whole world really be solved by the universalization of "quality education," and inevitably, in the future, will we have to resort to eugenic practices?
And isn't "freedom" a concept with a condemnable history and present? Should we then eradicate it from our vocabulary and then from our daily practice?
My individual right simply cannot override the collective well-being. In the same way that the collective cannot infringe on my right to have a minimum of personal autonomy. Because if I demonstrated any kind of chronic incapacity for minimally civilized behavior, even if this did not imply a hereditary potential, I still could not, ideally, form a family. Where is the dignity of the descendants I would bring into the world and not care for, or would do so in the worst way? The costs of highly dysfunctional individuals and... Many of their descendants, and I'm not just referring to those from the working class, have been very significant, not only in a financial sense, but also in an existential one. It is thanks to this idea of compulsory autonomy for almost every human individual that, for example, individuals with antisocial personality disorders have generated offspring, perpetuated this phenotype across generations and, even more seriously, dominated nations and empires just to impose or reinforce oppressive systems, especially the most cunning ones where astuteness and an impulse for dominance are mutually related...
A curious fact is that, if it is not eugenics, or a more invasive control of human populations, a priori, aiming at their improvement or, at least, the maintenance of what is good in them, it will inevitably be Social Darwinism, or the absence of any control of this type resulting in a randomness of results, which is not just a matter of "the richest taking advantage of the rest," but in a more ecological sense: "the one most adapted to a certain environment reproducing more," and In our current context of social and civilizational decay, it is not the most intelligent or sensible who has brought the most children into the world, resulting in a scenario opposite to that of eugenics, which is dysgenics.
I always wonder if most of those who claim to be totally against eugenics, even if they don't agree with it or know about it, would be in favor of its opposite?
It doesn't seem to be just an impression, but exactly what they think, precisely because they believe in a series of genuinely pseudoscientific beliefs about these topics that have become politically dominant, which I have sarcastically called "pseudosciences of good" (biased to the "left").
**It has been shown above that studies have found reproductive patterns that particularly favored the middle class over other social classes, primarily in pre-industrial revolution United Kingdom, and that this may have produced a primarily eugenic pattern, if middle and upper-class individuals tend, on average, to exhibit higher cognitive abilities (their social status as partial reflections of this).**
Current "gene therapy," besides being based on the cruel sacrifice of many non-human lives, often without any objective result in the treatment or cure of diseases, can also be used precisely for what "bioethicists" fear most: the use of this emerging type of technology to fuel narcissism or validate low self-esteem in many people, in short, to be used as a capitalist service in which we become our own Frankensteins... If it is possible to promote greater control over the direction of the genetic and phenotypic quality of a population without this resulting in Lebensraum and holocausts, but also without the opposite, precisely what has been happening.In our "modernity" (or post-modernity)... And even the idea based on free association, where a group decides to preserve or even direct its traits, as long as they are not immorally explicit traits or phenotypes, such as psychopathy, can be carried out without infringing any rights, indeed, exercising a right that should be well ratified...
Conclusion
AI shows once again that it is just another tool created by "elite" groups to reinforce their beliefs and that these are also shady power plans (in full execution), instead of serving as a technological instrument for true education, philosophical praxis. As a result, instead of being as impartial and objective as possible in relation to this topic, as is supposedly expected of a machine created by humans to overcome their own bias, it only replicates the common sense imposed as absolute truth, which has had serious consequences.
One of the most common arguments used against any eugenic practice is that which confronts it with the ideology of human rights. However, this ideology is always based on an unrealistically ideal world, without considering human contexts from a more realistic perspective. For eugenics, if practiced in a genuinely ethical way, would function precisely as the most ideal measure for an intrinsically non-ideal world.