The use of biotechnology to enhance intelligence raises ethical questions regarding fairness and equality. It would create an uneven playing field in terms of astronomical cost or not be FDA approved, as only those who can afford the enhancement may have access to it, exacerbating existing social inequalities like jet fuel on a dumpster fire.
This is of course something we’ve thought about. It’s a little hard to think too seriously about this so long as we stay on track to develop AGI, which will the gap between people due to genetic differences seem very small by comparison.
But if I ignore that for a moment, I think the best way to tackle this is to make sure the technology is to ensure the per unit cost is not too high (ideally < $10k), and to perhaps offer some innovative payment plans such as taking a percentage of people’s future earnings over the level they currently make for some period of time. So for example, instead of paying for the treatment directly, you might agree that for any money you make in excess of your current income, you pay the company 30% of it for 5 years.
Modifying genes to enhance intelligence could have unforeseen side effects or unintended consequences. Genetic modifications can have complex and unpredictable effects on various aspects of an individual’s physical and mental health, potentially leading to unforeseen negative outcomes.
This is of course somewhat of a concern, but most of the research I’ve read shows that whatever plieotropy exists between intelligence and other triats mostly works in your favor. In other words, the genes that increase intelligence generally tend to slightly decrease disease risk, violent behavior, and other traits generally considered negative.
The only exception to this I’ve seen this far is mild aspergers, the risk of which seems to be slightly increased by the same genes that affect intelligence. To the extent that this is a problem, we could simply identify the subset of genes that increase intelligence without increasing aspergers, or in addition to editing genes to increase intelligence, also edit genes to keep the risk of aspbergers constant at the same time.
Intellectual diversity is valuable for society as a whole. If everyone were genetically enhanced to have significantly higher intelligence, it may lead to a loss of diverse perspectives, creative thinking, and alternative problem-solving approaches that contribute to the richness of human society.
There’s 8 billion people on the planet. It’s going to take a very long time to edit even a million people. So I don’t think this should be a concern for at least another 50 years, by which point the question will probably be moot unless we have a global pause on AI development.
Individuals who choose not to undergo genetic enhancement for intelligence may face stigmatization or discrimination in a society that places a high value on intelligence. This could create a divide between enhanced and non-enhanced individuals, leading to social tensions and inequality.
Yes. I don’t really have a society-wide answer to this yet other than the good old “treat other people well”. This is already an issue with just natural variation in abilities, though gene editing would undoubtedly exacerbate it.
Focusing solely on increasing intelligence may lead to an imbalance in human development. Other important qualities such as emotional intelligence, creativity, empathy, and social skills may be undervalued or neglected, potentially resulting in a society that lacks holistic development. As we can deduce from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pure application of intelligence even with the urging of now socially disregarded religious mores to empathy for others, there tends to be some really horrific wars that result and that creates incentives for weapons systems to be developed that could lead to the extinction of the species. As has been said by a wise sage of the Levant long ago, “man cannot live by bread alone.”
We don’t actually plan to solely focus on intelligence. In fact the first targets will be polygenic brain diseases like Alzheimers or treatment resistant depression. I also think it would be good if we could modify other traits such as conscientiousness, tolerance to sleep deprivation and others.
The long-term effects of genetically enhancing intelligence are currently unknown. It would require extensive research and testing to fully understand the potential consequences, including any negative impacts on individuals and the broader population. This would also be the means the gatekeepers are most likely to hold these things back using, if first they don’t use the patent court racket first (see below for thoughts on that specifically intended for the author’s consideration).
We have very smart people around right now. They seem to be doing fine. Maybe there are “long term consequences” to modifying people to be outside the human range, but we probably won’t push that far outside the limits of what naturally occurs.
It’s also plausible that we could reverse some of the effects of editing with another round of edits designed to push in the opposite direction.
Assuming intelligence is primarily IQ, which is how quickly and effectively an individual comes up with a solution for a novel problem, does not fully encapsulate the notion meant by the word intelligence.
I agree of course. The post was already over 30 pages long, so I decided not to discuss other forms of intelligence. But in reality those would be of interest as well.
However, the hard part with considering any of that is that we don’t currently have the phenotype data to create predictors of JUST reading ability or JUST math ability.
You are clearly very intelligent and apparently learn quickly, so now is the time to learn how to write patent applications for any and all processes you think evidently implied by these ideas or face paying a licensing fee to conduct research along lines you came up, if the patent holder even allows that much and doesn’t shovel the idea into the filing cabinet of doom.
I spoke with a few biologists before publishing this post, each of which informed me that I don’t have any truly novel ideas here. I have put together several existing ideas in a novel way, but it’s doubtful they are patentable.
We WILL file patents after we start doing lab work.
This is of course something we’ve thought about. It’s a little hard to think too seriously about this so long as we stay on track to develop AGI, which will the gap between people due to genetic differences seem very small by comparison.
But if I ignore that for a moment, I think the best way to tackle this is to make sure the technology is to ensure the per unit cost is not too high (ideally < $10k), and to perhaps offer some innovative payment plans such as taking a percentage of people’s future earnings over the level they currently make for some period of time. So for example, instead of paying for the treatment directly, you might agree that for any money you make in excess of your current income, you pay the company 30% of it for 5 years.
This is of course somewhat of a concern, but most of the research I’ve read shows that whatever plieotropy exists between intelligence and other triats mostly works in your favor. In other words, the genes that increase intelligence generally tend to slightly decrease disease risk, violent behavior, and other traits generally considered negative.
The only exception to this I’ve seen this far is mild aspergers, the risk of which seems to be slightly increased by the same genes that affect intelligence. To the extent that this is a problem, we could simply identify the subset of genes that increase intelligence without increasing aspergers, or in addition to editing genes to increase intelligence, also edit genes to keep the risk of aspbergers constant at the same time.
There’s 8 billion people on the planet. It’s going to take a very long time to edit even a million people. So I don’t think this should be a concern for at least another 50 years, by which point the question will probably be moot unless we have a global pause on AI development.
Yes. I don’t really have a society-wide answer to this yet other than the good old “treat other people well”. This is already an issue with just natural variation in abilities, though gene editing would undoubtedly exacerbate it.
We don’t actually plan to solely focus on intelligence. In fact the first targets will be polygenic brain diseases like Alzheimers or treatment resistant depression. I also think it would be good if we could modify other traits such as conscientiousness, tolerance to sleep deprivation and others.
We have very smart people around right now. They seem to be doing fine. Maybe there are “long term consequences” to modifying people to be outside the human range, but we probably won’t push that far outside the limits of what naturally occurs.
It’s also plausible that we could reverse some of the effects of editing with another round of edits designed to push in the opposite direction.
I agree of course. The post was already over 30 pages long, so I decided not to discuss other forms of intelligence. But in reality those would be of interest as well.
However, the hard part with considering any of that is that we don’t currently have the phenotype data to create predictors of JUST reading ability or JUST math ability.
I spoke with a few biologists before publishing this post, each of which informed me that I don’t have any truly novel ideas here. I have put together several existing ideas in a novel way, but it’s doubtful they are patentable.
We WILL file patents after we start doing lab work.