On Fri, 7 Nov 2003, Luke Weiger wrote:
> > And no, "selfishness" isn't wired into anything.
> >
> > Joanna
>
> I predict that we'll be able to create a society without selfishness around
> the time we're able to eradicate traits like red-headedness if we so choose.
>
> -- Luke
Or myopia? Or PKU? Lewontin (I thought) pointed out the silliness of Luke's argument here decades ago in critiques of sociobiology: even if a characteristic is influenced by genetics/biology, that fact is irrelevant to the question of its susceptibility to human intervention. It's interesting to me how medical researchers don't take Luke's view: "PKU? Well, it's genetic, so I guess we can't do anything about it"--when in fact all that needs to be done to avoid mental retardation in infants with the genetic disorder is control their diets.
Miles