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LEON KASS: Would we feel as badly about this society if they chose to equalize the people
by bringing the bottom up rather than bringing the top down?
AMY KASS: What if we leveled up in a very benign way? Instead of manipulating genes,
just alter the food supply or recommend a certain kind of diet for all pregnant women
so that the next generation through diet will have all the benefits of intelligence and
brawn and so on.
LEON KASS: Well, you know, some people are born with wonderful teeth and don't get cavities.
But we now fluoridate the water so that everybody can have teeth that get fewer cavities. That's
small change compared to the things that are talked about here. Let's assume that you really
could lift up, without coercive means, do we find, are we...do we have objections to
equalization of talents as such? Do we like the fact that some people are really vastly
more gifted than others? Or would you, would you like a world in which everybody starts
not only on a level playing field, but with the same internal equipment. And then you'll
find out what they'll make of themselves. And the internal equipment includes, by the
way not just smarts, but drive, and desire, and will, and those sorts of things which
make a telling difference with respect to the results.
JAMES W. CEASER: This brings us to the point where we're asking 'Is there such a thing
as nature?' Some limit beyond which, even if we wished, couldn't happen without changing
nature. And it does seem to me that nature gives us these differences, or at least some
of them, which can't be ever eradicated. And that to alter this might be a hope that someone
has in a fantasy, but which would fundamentally change everything we know about human beings
and society and the world we've come to know. It's almost a vain exercise to speculate,
if I had to choose, I'd say no, I prefer to keep the world we live in than that, but I
don't think we'll ever have that choice entirely.
AMY KASS: My sense is that if you leveled up, we would run into the same problems that
we have. And you would very likely run into many of the same problems that exist here.
Because you're not going to eliminate luck.