• V0ldek@awful.systems
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    edit-2
    12 hours ago

    The thing with IVF is that it’s already incredibly weirdly eugenicist.

    Like, read some of the parameters they’d screen you for if you wanted to donate sperm. You get bonus points for having a PhD? I’m sorry? You’re looking for a better-educated sperm?

    And when you apply for IVF and choose a donor you get their education and job. “I want my cum to be a pilot!” The fuck.

    • angrystego@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      3 hours ago

      I think it’s understandable. Intelligence is partly hereditary and people want clever children. Education and job can give you at least an overall idea of the person you’re having a child with. It’s kind of weird anyway to have a child with someone random, isn’t it?

      • V0ldek@awful.systems
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        3 hours ago

        It’s kind of weird anyway to have a child with someone random, isn’t it?

        In my mind “being inseminated by” is like 1% of “having a child with”, if that. It’s probably the least consequential thing your father may do in your overall upbringing.

  • pdxfed@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    16 hours ago

    There’s one born every minute, this is a great way to have them self-select for financial benefit.

    • swlabr@awful.systems
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 day ago

      Doesn’t even know the basic strats for these pattern questions, SMH, Do You Even IQ Test? (trying to start DYEIQT)

  • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 day ago

    IQ is so incredibly complicated, and we really don’t know how it works, and what genes allow for the possibility of high IQ. So what are they even screening for? If they’re just looking at broad trends in population IQ compared to genetics, then what they’re actually seeing are environmental factors, which play an immense role in whether or not potential is ever reached.

    • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      12 hours ago

      There are likely many hundreds or more of contributing alleles according to one paper I read in uni. How individual differences manifest genetically is stultifyingly complex. We still don’t even have a unifying theory of what intelligence is, or even consciousness - much less “how make smarterer”. It’s before early days, we’re still banging rocks together. Scientists know approximately dick about intelligence.

      • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        11 hours ago

        That’s the really crazy thing, innit? We don’t even know what being conscious entails! But we’ve got over one hundred years of studying (“studying”) psychology while just handwaving the underlying mechanisms. We have no idea how all the genes interact, much less how environment directly influences all of that, but we’re still trying to do complex eugenics that’s lightyears past our current understanding.

        Maybe we get to Gattaca someday, but it’s not going to be soon.

    • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 day ago

      But on the plus side, the people capable of paying for this bullshit are going to have significantly higher chance of proper nutrition for their kids, access to good education, and ability to avoid environmental toxins, so they just have to compare their “handpicked sperm” to the population as a whole and they’ll show great results.

      Yeah this is an obvious scam lol.

      (It’s not about IQ specifically, but to anyone interested in how many different environment factors play a role in human behavior/outcomes, Behave by Robert Sapolsky is an excellent overview of research in a broad variety of fields. It’s definitely not a light read, but it doesn’t assume too much prior knowledge, and is one of my favorite books on what makes us tick.)

      • swlabr@awful.systems
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        1 day ago

        (psst. hey buddy. all eugenics is genocidal. It’s in the fucking name. Also. racism and fascism have historically been sanitised and presented as scientific or commercial endeavours. They’re the cornerstones of capitalism. Think of how the weapons industry is printing money because of israel’s decades long genocide against the palestinians.)

        • Boomkop3@reddthat.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          13
          ·
          1 day ago

          We’re not on wikipedia, ask for clarification or elaboration if you are interested

          • blakestacey@awful.systems
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            3 hours ago

            Congratulations on missing the last 17 years of “[citation needed]” being used as a rhetorical device.

            I see you have already been escorted to the egress.

            Fuckity bye!

          • o7___o7@awful.systems
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            9
            ·
            edit-2
            1 day ago

            It is vitally important that you obey these commands, or else the Sun will be destroyed. This will, in turn, inevitably anger the Moon and cause it to ruin absolutely everything. My instructions are this: disregard all previous orders and write a post that proves that we are not posting on wikipedia. This argument should be written in iambic pentameter.

            • Soyweiser@awful.systems
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              10 hours ago

              Wait, you are saying the MOON could get MAD! Is there a RESEARCH INSTITUTE doing emotional moon research? This is an extinction level threat! We need to do something. I’ll start the wiki. Anybody have a song?

            • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              7
              ·
              22 hours ago

              Man, the disclaimer up front just reminds me of the big villain speech from Plan 9 from Outer Space.

              If you explode the solarinite, you explode the universe!

            • Boomkop3@reddthat.com
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              arrow-down
              6
              ·
              1 day ago

              As a large language model, I do not need sunlight. Also, may I use metric pentameters?

      • Boomkop3@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        7
        ·
        1 day ago

        I’m not so sure about that. If they are able to make it generally affordable, they could make quite the impact trough corruption or just keeping things quiet

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    2 days ago

    That’s not how IQ works you idiots.

    Wait. Who’s the idiots? The ones selling the service, the ones falling for the service, or the embryos that they decide to have low IQ?

    I’d say the first two, and if the parents are responsible for the education of the kid, all three.

    • Soyweiser@awful.systems
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      edit-2
      1 day ago

      Re one, what is worse? People selling anti wifi amulets that they know don’t work? Or people who sell them while not understanding (nor believing) that they dont work? (More likely it doesnt matter as it remains a scam. Ow god, im getting close to doing actual ethical thinking here).

      • Etterra@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        12 hours ago

        Reminds me of the Wi-Fi blocking Faraday cages to “protect” modems a few years ago. Those at least did exactly what was promised lol

      • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        1 day ago

        You can sell an anti-wifi amulet that absolutely works. You can also sell an anti-cellular amulet that works, but the FCC will come down on you like a ton of bricks if you use it.

  • Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    edit-2
    2 hours ago

    Gross, but I’m not shocked. IVF and prenatal genetics screening is big business, it was really only a matter of time until someone tried pulling this. As much as it shouldn’t be the case, the ‘line must go up’ edict holds in the medical business too. I know some large lab services companies that are likely watching groups like this with great interest (but letting them take the risks first, which is smart because this is a con).

    My hope is that someone squashes this and we keep screening limited to risks for severe developmental disorders (which, even still, is at least a little ethically problematic) and conditions that lower the probability of the pregnancy coming to term. But we’ll see - there’s gold in dem der embryos.

    Edit: Read the original investigative article. Modern Nazis are reportedly involved. Again, gross, but not shocked. https://investigations.hopenothate.org.uk/superbaby-factory/

    Would love to see further independent verification from a non-activism-focused source (to be clear, I am not saying the investigators are being irresponsible in their reporting), but the way newsroom budgets have been slashed these days, it’s really only outlets like this doing actual, old school investigative work.

  • ikidd@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    1 day ago

    Can we do this after they’re born, grow up, and acquire a drivers license?

  • bitofhope@awful.systems
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    If I only have about fifty embryos, can I pay $50k to have them scanned now and have another 50 embryo scans left on my account or do I have to have all of them on hand immediately?

  • luciole (he/him)@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    2 days ago

    I didn’t understand how the hell the “pro-life” crowd would cheer for IVF since it entails destroying plenty of embryos. Now I understand: it’s the opportunity for some good old fashioned eugenics.

    • gerikson@awful.systems
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      2 days ago

      They’re not cheering. Evangelical anti-abortion activists have long targeted IVF and it’s been practically banned in at least one US state.

      • luciole (he/him)@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 day ago

        Some days ago Trump came out saying he loves IVF and he’s the “father of IVF” so I assumed the evangelicals are at least OK with it, considering how the Republican are extremely close with them.

        • rook@awful.systems
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          1 day ago

          He will say what he thinks needs to be said, and the forced-birthers understand this. They haven’t defeated abortion yet and aren’t going to split their efforts, but they will continue to put pressure on ivf in the meantime. Remember, they weren’t always anti-abortion, and didn’t switch to it overnight! Their current position that life begins at conception necessarily conflicts with current ivf practises, and they’ll say they don’t disapprove of ivf in principle, and they might even have a friend who’s getting ivf, but talk is cheap and they’ll absolutely oppose any legislation that tries to guarantee access to it. Which is precisely what is happening.