#598 - Dr Jonathan Anomaly - The Wild Ethics Of Human Genetic Enhancement

Modern Wisdom

Chris Williamson

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2023

⏱️ 118 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr Jonathan Anomaly is a philosopher who writes about the social implications of emerging biotechnologies, teaches classes in ethics and game theory, and helped design the Philosophy, Politics and Economics program at Duke University.

The ability to select from potential embryos is already here. Soon, we will be able to select for height, intelligence, personality types, moral disposition, athletic ability and maybe even enhance traits which aren't present. This creates a vortex of complex ethics around one of the most contentious topics on the internet - genetics. So I decided to dive in.

Expect to learn just what the current technology of embryo selection can achieve right now, whether opting to not genetically enhance your child is an unethical practise, the dangers of creating massive societal inequality, why you are already a eugenicist, whether genetic interventions are morally different from environmental ones and much more...

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello friends, welcome back to the show. My guest today is Dr Jonathan Anomaly. He's a
0:05.6	philosopher who writes about the social implications of emerging biotechnologies, teaches classes
0:10.7	in ethics and game theory and help design the philosophy, politics and economics program
0:15.2	at Duke University. The ability to select from potential embryos is already here.
0:20.7	Soon we will be able to select for height, intelligence, personality types, moral disposition,
0:26.0	athletic ability and maybe even enhance traits which aren't present. This creates a vortex
0:32.5	of complex ethics around one of the most contentious topics on the internet, genetics.
0:37.9	So as is tradition, I decided to dive in. Expect to learn just what the current technology
0:43.3	of embryo selection can achieve right now, whether opting to not genetically enhance your child
0:48.8	is an unethical practice, the dangers of creating massive social inequality, why you are already a
0:55.1	eugenicist, whether genetic interventions are morally different from environmental ones,
1:00.4	and much more. This conversation touches on a number of topics that are incredibly unpopular
1:07.6	on the internet from heritability to behavioral genetics, we discuss the history of eugenics and
1:12.6	embryo selection and genetic enhancement. And I praise Johnny for deciding to be close to the
1:18.4	forefront of one of the spiciest discussions that you can have online. I really think that you're
1:24.4	going to love this one, it's absolutely fascinating. This technology is here, it's not slowing down,
1:29.2	more people are going to use it and it is crucial that everybody understands what it's going to do.
1:35.2	Also don't forget you might be listening but not subscribed and if you want to support the show
1:39.7	and make me very happy and ensure that you don't miss episodes when they go live, just press
1:43.9	the subscribe button, that is the only thing that I would ask of you. I thank you.
1:49.0	In other news, this episode is brought to you by Jim Shark. My number one shorts, I have won
1:55.8	every different type of shorts from every different sports company that I cared to try on
	...

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