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Gene Editing and Intelligence: A Bad

2021-04-16 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:59 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature · mode: Personal essay · tags: timely hook

Responding to talk of gene editing prompted by a book about Jennifer Doudna, Hank argues that editing children for intelligence is a dangerous misunderstanding: genetic potential is realized through environment, and intelligence means being well-suited to one's own time, so designing people for today would rob us of the diversity the future needs.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Praise for John's video; the gene-editing debate escalating from disease to height to intelligence, and why 'more super smart people' doesn't make sense

  • ★ Hank tells John his last video made everyone Hank knows laugh very hard. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank has seen much recent conversation, probably prompted by the book Code Breaker about CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna, about whether and how we should edit the genomes of people and of people not yet born. (hedged) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ The conversations escalate: editing out diseases, yes; editing children to be taller for sports; and at some point, intelligence. — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ The common defense of editing for intelligence, that we all benefit from more super smart people solving hard problems, does not make sense, Hank says. — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ Intelligence is to some extent genetic; studies show that it is. — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ Hank thinks we have not wrapped our brains around what we mean by intelligence, as we still argue whether a hot dog is a sandwich. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — Twin studies: identical twins' intelligence scores are closer than fraternal twins'

  • ★★★ Identical twins are more likely than fraternal twins to have similar intelligence test scores, though both share environment, parents and womb. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Environment versus genetics is a hairy thing that is hard to wrap your mind around. — 00:00:58

00:01:27 — A hypothetical boy with ADHD and sensory issues: potential is genetic, capturing it is environmental

  • ★★★ Hank imagines a precocious, overconfident young man with ADHD, sensory processing issues and a lifelong eighth-grade reading speed, all genetic: born at the right moment with the right support, these traits might combine into acquiring intelligence. (hypothetical, hedged) — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ With slightly different traits or environment, less support or less indulged overconfidence, the same traits might hinder rather than help a student. (hypothetical, hedged) — 00:01:56
  • ★★★ The potential was genetic, though complicated and reinforced by many factors; the ability to capture the potential was environmental. — 00:01:56

00:02:26 — Environment varies over time; Hank's own traits became assets; intelligence as fit to one's world; editing for it is hubris

  • ★★★ Most importantly, environment varies not only across a society and across cultures but across time. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ We don't know now which traits will be useful to the people of the future, because their world will be different from ours. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ Hank, who would have had a very different life without computers, has sensory processing disorder and ADHD and reads slower than the average ninth grader; luck in timing, the right tools and support turned possible liabilities into assets. — 00:02:26

  • ★★★ Intelligence is more about what we need from people now than any innate thing: being well-suited to the world you were born into, not an on-off genius switch. — 00:02:55

    “being well-suited to the world in which you happen to have been born into”

  • ★★ As a species we do not yet understand the genetics of eye color. — 00:02:55

  • ★★★ The idea of genetically modifying a child to be more intelligent is not just wild hubris but a dangerous misunderstanding of what intelligence is. — 00:02:55

00:03:24 — Designing people for today denies diversity the future needs; a lesson for education now; sign-off

  • ★★★ Designing people to be good at living in today's world denies that the world needs many different people with many kinds of abilities. — 00:03:24
  • ★★★ Worse, designing people for the world of one moment deprives us of the diversity that would give us people good at living in the world of the future. — 00:03:24
  • ★★★ This is a lesson not only for before genetically engineering new humans but for educating, enabling and appreciating humans now. — 00:03:24 · education

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says the obvious bad thing glossed over at the start, creating a race of smart people to 'help' everyone else, is so plainly dystopian that Hank chose to look deeper at what intelligence is. — video description
  • ★★ Hank recommends an episode of the Ezra Klein Show with Tressie McMillan Cottom as amazing. — video description
  • ★★★ Hank does not think intelligence is a thing on its own but a skill: traits make people able to acquire the mental tools we call intelligence. — video description
  • ★★ Our systems may help people with certain traits acquire intelligence; with different systems, different traits would lead to it. — video description
  • ★★ Humans are less individual than we imagine: we build systems out of people, and our focus on individuals' power is more cognitive bias than reality. — video description
  • ★★ We know so little that everyone talking about the eventual impacts of gene editing, especially on intelligence, Hank included, is bound to be wrong. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Human genetic enhancement · Intelligence · Nature versus nurture

Also: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder · CRISPR gene editing · education · Jennifer Doudna · Sensory processing disorder · The Code Breaker · Twin study

Only in the description or credits: cognitive bias · The Ezra Klein Show · Tressie McMillan Cottom

Also centred on Intelligence: The AI Question that No AI Person Asks

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