/sci/ - Science & Math

>>8918302
>Hasn't seen The Masterpiece Society
A great deal of what we know about human learning, and indeed, a great deal of our advances in educating the young, has come about as a result of our working with the mentally retarded.

It's a slippery slope, as necessity is the mother of invention. After war, dealing with the various disabilities birthed within society has been the source of more invention than near anything else.

They, and those unfortunates like them, are in fact an indispensable resource for advancement in general - a driving force. They are also a testament to any given society's ability to sustain itself. They are so few in number, if they truly were enough of a burden on any given society to cause it to be so short sighted as to exterminate them, that society isn't worth saving, and in all probability, can't be saved at all.

>>8674331
>>8674331
There's several problems with selective breeding Eugenics.

- Everyone wants their child to be president, but society cannot function filled with nothing but presidents. Society needs "deltas" to function.

- You also lose all the technological and medical advancements that result in treating such disorders, arguably the single biggest motivators of various technological sectors, outside of war. Necessity is the mother of invention. Remove a basic necessity and you stunt innovation.

- Eventually genetic homogeneity becomes a problem. The entire species becomes more vulnerable to the synergistic effect of previously undiagnosed genetic disorders and more vulnerable to virus epidemics.

It's also a moot point, as human genetic engineering is right around the corner. I mean, yes, it has all these same problems and more, but by the time you time you create an institutionalized breeding program and have it around long enough to have a real affect, you'll have genetic engineering of such magnitude that it'll make the whole painful, likely war spawning, effort obsolete.

And of course, this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Masterpiece_Society

>>8674347
>We are though. 90% of downs syndrom babies are aborted.
Down's syndrome is epigenetic, not inherited. Aborting Down's syndrome children does nothing to cleanse the gene pool - at best it just eases the impact on societal labor resources.

Mind you, a lot of what we know about the human learning process and various advancements in educational system, are thanks to the efforts of teaching the mentally retarded, insomuch as we are able.