Re: Ethical minefield, and maybe eugenics wasn't so last century?
..not me, but I guess maybe related to the social credit score thingy?
Well, that's coming. Or here. Got vaxxed? You can join in with society! Unvaxxed? Sorry, remain in lockdown, citizen. Plus it's also riffing on the general accumulation and trade of people's personal information, especially medical information. Once that's out there, the Internet never forgets, and there are many potential uses for genetic information for both good, or bad. Sorry, citizen, you are defective. Report for sterilisation immediately. Or picking up on another commentor, we could speed up the elimination of undesirable traits by termination, or sterilisation at birth.
After all, we've done this kind of thing in the past.
Or there's fluffy stuff like this-
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/05/this-credit-card-has-a-carbon-emission-spending-limit/
Tapping into that problem, Swedish fintech company Doconomy has launched a new credit card that monitors the carbon footprint of its customers - and cuts off their spending when they hit their carbon max.
Everyone gets a 'free' monthly carbon credit. Buy stuff, it's CO2 cost is deducted. Exceed your limit and you can no longer buy stuff. If you're someone like Al Gore or Bill Gates, you can easily afford to buy more credit off the little people to pay for jet fuel. And like any other 'social credit' system, you can use it to enforce social policy. Who needs to use gentle 'nudges' when you can shove hard?
And it'd be trivial to apply to eugenics policies as well. Want more credits so you can buy insect protein? 10kg credit for every pack of condoms. According to our elite, we've got an overpopulation crisis, so let's nudge a bit to manage that and encourage poor people to not breed. Once you've eliminated alternative payment mechanisms, you can use the card for enforcement as well, as we've done with contact tracking & tracing. This person is not authorised to breed, so why are they buying maternity products?
The reason I referenced Gattaca is that it celebrates the human spirit, that determination and drive can overcome genetic disabilities, and that a future where DNA screening is routine is a very bleak one indeed.
Indeed. It's a great movie, and a concept used in much SF, mostly dystopian. Yet a depressing number of people seem to think enabling these outcomes is a brilliant idea... And maybe it is, especially if carbon credits are transferable. Get a basic 250kg for every person eliminated. Think how much you could buy with the carbon footprint of one of the 0.1% who seem really keen on controlling the majority!