Question

What is a caveat with selection experiments? What implications does this have for peoples’ concerns about unscrupulous persons “selecting” for intelligence or some sort of “super race” of humans?

Answer 1

Ans: Caveats :When estimating heritability from the observed and expected resemblance between relatives, a model is necessary to specify the expected resemblance in terms of genetic and environmental factors. Sometimes this model is straightforward;

for example, it may posit that the observed resemblance between half-sibling dairy cows on different farms is due solely to additive genetic factors inherited from the common parent. In other cases, a model's assumptions may be open to questioning. For example, in human twin analysis, it is usually assumed that the resemblance between monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs due to shared environment is the same.

the scientists successfully discover the sequence of genetic arrangement causing intelligence. Actually, they find that half of people with that specific genetic arrangement have high IQ and another half of those people have average IQ.The studies confirm that there are specific epigenetic changes (i.e, attachment of methyl groups into specific gene locations) making those people to have high IQ.

As for the good news is that science can make those specific epigenetic changes to these genes by inserting nanobots (very small robots) into human body and attach the methyl groups to those specific genes. So the first step is to find who has that sequence of genes. The good news is most of human beings have those gene sequence. The next step is to attach methyl groups to genes. It needs money. It is estimated that five millions dollars will be needed to attach methyl groups and maintain those changes for the whole life of a human being. It also needs to start from young age. So it has to commercialize the whole service. If one has the money, he will get that service. So a lot of rich people plan to give that service to their children because they can afford it.