[eggy]

I will not argue the common usage meanings that have come about for 'natural' and 'artificial' for things like plastic flowers or street lamps, but I look at 'ourselves', or humankind as part of nature, and not supernatural, or apart from it. I am not sure when this distinction or usage arose, but 'artificial' or using 'societal' here seems self-hating, and I don't think the term 'natural selection' is archaic or exclusive in this sense.

The same reason I find cell towers made to look like trees an eyesore, and I much prefer the 'natural' shape a truss tower takes with its wide supportive base, diagonals and ever-decreasing thickness to the spire. I personally find these more aesthetically appealing. Light from 'artificial' light bulbs is made of photos regardless of color temperature and the time of day it is turned on. I don't like plastic flowers, although plastic is also found in nature, but just not as structured, homogenized, or in the quantities we produce it.

I agree with you on the 'social selection' and eugenics bit. My Mom had bought me a hardcover 'Eugenics' textbook from an old bookshop originally published in England in the 20s. Scary content given what occurred 20 years later, but it was humorous to me when reading it in 1976, especially the chapter on 'The Honeymoon' and how to have the proper one with attendant drawings! I was twelve at the time.