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Julia Smith's picture

Errors and human improvement

After Thursday's discussion with Professor Dalke, I've been thinking a lot about the concept of individuals being "errors", and I've come to the conclusion that I think that we all are. 

One thought that has always scared me is if scientists find out what makes us errors, will they try and fix us? I'm not talking about minor errors, I'm talking about bigger ones, controversial ones, such as being gay (if you consider that an "error", which some people do). Or, what if people begin to think that emotion is flawed and find a way to correct it?

I've also thought a lot about the social impact of these corrections. For example, if people in the future find a genetic reason for being gay, and they come to an agreement that it is a fixable error, then they are now impacting an entire community instead of an individual. 

After this week's reading, I have started to think about it another way. If all patterns of human culture are "artifacts", if they are created no differently than organisms, then what is the difference in their evolution?        

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