[worik]

Mēh!

Let the Chinese authorities burden themselves with questions of DNA markers and ethnic groups

Eugenics has not done anyone any good, and when used as a means of controlling populations it goes to very dark places

If the whole stack is not kept ethical, it is not ethical at all. If not ethical then it tends to evil

[aydyn]

> If the whole stack is not kept ethical, it is not ethical at all.

This is such a naive, borderline illiterate take. How much of modern human biological knowledge is built upon a foundation of unethical practices?

[kibwen]

From a practical (rather than moral) perspective, the reason that scientific ethics are a thing in the first place is so that the public does not sour on scientific endeavors and view them as illegitimate. If you eschew ethics, then, like Dr. Frankenstein, eventually you will have the public beating down your door with torches and pitchforks, regardless of the results you achieve.

Which is to say, if you care about advancing science in the long term rather than merely in the short term, you must care about ethics. Accusing others of naivete here is a bad look.

[aydyn]

From a practical perspective, nobody cares unless it affects them.

Ethics? AI research today is plainly not ethical, yet its full steam ahead.

Whats a bad look is some idealized notion that everything can be perfect and ethical and there are no gray areas. That is plainly magical thinking.

[hnfong]

From a practical (rather than moral) perspective, as long as the research is approved by the government and the government is authoritarian, there won't be any public beating down your door with torches and pitchforks.

[xdennis]

> Eugenics has not done anyone any good

It's reduced genetic defects in the population. For example in many countries you can abort babies with Down syndrome up to the time of birth.

[BiteCode_dev]

Are writing this comment from a phone made with no unethical issues?

Cause I don't know any.

[cocacola1]

No evil is preferable, but a little evil is acceptable. A lot of evil, however, is not (unless compared to pure evil, I suppose).

[BiteCode_dev]

So the whole chain must be ethical, but children labor to make your phone is a little evil that is not counting.

Absolute statement, then relativism.

I'm convinced.

[cocacola1]

Rather, a recognition of the current state of affairs. And not just my phone; my clothes, some chocolate I had recently, and probably most things I own. The overseer is more evil, but we’re all a little evil (or a lot?), though I doubt we’re all about to go off grid and be self sufficient, weaving our own clothes, building our own shelter, foraging our food, etc.

[BiteCode_dev]

We can apply this argument to the original scientific frauds.

At this point I have no idea what your opinion is.

[yogorenapan]

How are you measuring “evil”?

[cocacola1]

By the tried and true methods of “I know it when I see it” and the smell test.