Stupidity should be cured

Greta

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Stupidity should be cured, says DNA discoverer

18:13 28 February 03

NewScientist.com news service

Fifty years to the day from the discovery of the structure of DNA, one of its co-discoverers has caused a storm by suggesting that stupidity is a genetic disease that should be cured.

On 28 February 1953 biologists James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA - the chemical code for all life. The breakthrough revealed how genetic information is passed from one generation to the next and revolutionised biology and medicine.

But in a documentary series to be screened in the UK on Channel 4, Watson says that low intelligence is an inherited disorder and that molecular biologists have a duty to devise gene therapies or screening tests to tackle stupidity.

"If you are really stupid, I would call that a disease," says Watson, now president of the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory, New York. "The lower 10 per cent who really have difficulty, even in elementary school, what's the cause of it? A lot of people would like to say, 'Well, poverty, things like that.' It probably isn't. So I'd like to get rid of that, to help the lower 10 per cent."

Watson, no stranger to controversy, also suggests that genes influencing beauty could also be engineered. "People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would be great."


More...

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This is priceless!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yellowlaugh.gif
 

Rothrandir

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shasha, there's hope for you yet! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 

B@rt

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/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/twak.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yellowlaugh.gif
 

Mutie

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Well look at what happened to me for messing with genetics. Be afraid, be very afraid.

On the other hand this is really fitting. Tonight I will be releasing, or unleashing on an unsuspecting public the culmination and perfection of my genetic biomech technology: Female Mutechs!

That right my clone and I have been cloned again. And this time it's right. These girls are smoking hot and come standard with genetic LED technology.

Thanks Sasha. I could not have planned this any better.
 

James S

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the article continues...

"Watson expects FDA approval for wide spread use by the end of next year stating that help from the mice used in the animal trials was really helping to speed up the work necessary to start clinical trials in human beings.

The injection virus used to add the engineered plasmids to brain nerve tissue is a very common rhino virus. Normally this virus could not cross the blood/brain barrier which means the new DNA could not reach it's intended target. This could still be beneficial as it would reach nerve tissue in the spinal column and lower ganglia potentially decreasing reaction times and increasing sensitivity to certain sensation, but he is careful to say that this is preliminary information at this point as no studies on this have yet been done. In order for the virus to reach the brain it must be introduced directly into the spinal column via a lumbar puncture.

The other benefit to using the common cold virus is that your own immune system can remove it completely within 72 hours for a reasonable healthy adult. This also means that the potentially deadly encephalitis that this causes is temporary and will rarely be life threatening.

The effects of the procedure should be evident within the first 4 to 6 months after treatment. Watson warns that with the first set of volunteers there were some social issues. "Basically what they went through was identical to what you would expect from puberty in a young person with a high IQ. All the same disillusionment and separation. Even depression and social anxiety as the person comes to realize that they will never be like everyone else and their chances at successfully having sex with a member of their own species has been greatly reduced.

Watson plans to ameliorate some of these concerns with a computer dating system specifically adapted to match up participants with each other during the worst of the adaption period. Though there are no participants yet to join, the system is online today and ready for their applications. study members will be contacted repeatedly via email until they break down and join the online dating scene.

While he says most people can come through the transformation from normal, or sub-normal to superior intelligence without any permanent damage to the physical structure of their brain or the moral fabric of their being, there should be some care taken into profiling those wishing to undergo the treatment. "some people just can't handle it, waking up one day after a period of depression and finally realizing that everything you've enjoyed, everything you have believed and everything that you have ever held sacred is completely pointless and without basis in reality can be a shocking realization" he says with a smile "But for others this can be a truly liberating experience"

Watsons lobby group has already introduced a bill into the house to make the treatment compulsory for all new and existing members of Congress. The bill is sure to be controversial as it includes no grandfather clause for the current members. The discussion is likely to be lively when discussion on the floor finally realizes what it has really been about all along: Whether ancient stupidity or new ideas should rule the people. But with the bell curve quickly running off the top of the chart President Bush was quoted as saying "Thats great that half our population need no longer be below average." Bush then showed a graph with a dot that he pointed to and said "See this point? Thats Me, and as you can clearly see I am far enough beyond the curve that I am not going to benefit as much as you, I am therefore not taking the treatment."

Discussion quickly turned to funding as to who is going to be covered for this new treatment. Medicare has decided not to cover any patients as they have decided that stupidity is cheaper as the patients tend to die faster from stupid things that they do, whereas smarter people tent to think before acting and therefore are more expensive as they live to the point where their care becomes more long term.

Further spin offs form the treatment will be a new 12 step program helping people to come to terms with their stupidity and foster a willingness to overcome it. "DAA" or "Dumb *** Anonymous" has already begun to accept people that will be especially in need of the treatment. "Hello, my name is Bill, and I'm a Dumb ***..."
 

Greta

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James,

I purposely didn't post the whole thing because of copyright laws... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
D

**DONOTDELETE**

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James, did you write that? pretty funny. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 

brightnorm

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[ QUOTE ]
James S said:
the article continues....."Dumb *** Anonymous" has already begun to accept people that will be especially in need of the treatment. "Hello, my name is Bill, and I'm a Dumb ***..."

[/ QUOTE ]

Quite clever and inventive.

Brightnorm
 
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