The Future (84 page)
Authors: Al Gore
205
Europe was influential in forming the highly restrictive quota system
Ibid.
206
influenced by deep confusion over what evolution really means
Moreno,
The Body Politic
, pp. 64–67.
207
Sir Francis Galton, and was then popularized by Herbert Spencer
Ibid., p. 65.
208
based on the crackpot ideas of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Ibid.
209
after their birth were genetically passed on to their offspring
Ibid.
210
was also promoted in the Soviet Union by Trofim Lysenko
“Trofim Denisovich Lysenko,”
Encyclopaedia Britannica
,
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/353099/Trofim-Denisovich-Lysenko
.
211
mainstream genetics during the three decades
Ibid.
212
Geneticists who disagreed with Lysenko were secretly arrested
Ibid.; Moreno,
The Body Politic
, p. 69.
213
some were found dead in unexplained circumstances
“Trofim Denisovich Lysenko,”
Encyclopaedia Britannica;
Moreno,
The Body Politic
, p. 69.
214
that biological theory conform with Soviet agricultural needs
“Trofim Denisovich Lysenko,”
Encyclopaedia Britannica
.
215
rather those that were best adapted to their environments
Michael Shermer, “Darwin Misunderstood,” February 2009,
http://www.michaelshermer.com/2009/02/darwin-misunderstood/
.
216
“undesirables,” and had enabled them to proliferate
Moreno,
The Body Politic
, pp. 67–68.
217
led to the proliferation of “undesirables” in the first place
Ibid., pp. 69–70.
218
quite a few reactionary advocates of eugenics
Ibid.
219
described as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center
Ibid., p. 70; Southern Poverty Law Center, Intelligence Files, “Pioneer Fund,”
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/pioneer-fund
.
220
founding president was none other than Harry Laughlin
Wellerstein, “Harry Laughlin’s ‘Model Eugenical Sterilization Law.’ ”
221
Eugenics also found support, historians say
Moreno,
The Body Politic
, pp. 67–70.
222
what was appropriate by way of state intervention in heredity
Ibid.
223
theories that were even vaguely similar to that of Nazism
Ibid., pp. 67–69.
224
debate over current proposals that some have labeled “neo-eugenics”
Leroi, “The Future of Neo-Eugenics.”
225
half of all Americans still say they do not believe in evolution
Gallup, “In U.S., 46% Hold Creationist View of Human Origins,” June 1, 2012,
http://www.gallup.com/poll/155003/Hold-Creationist-View-Human-Origins.aspx
.
226
one of the more than two dozen state eugenics laws
Buck v. Bell
, 274 U.S. 200, May 2, 1927.
227
the young woman, Carrie Buck, had already had a child
University of Virginia—Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, “Carrie Buck, Virginia’s Test Case,” 2004,
http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/eugenics/3-buckvbell.cfm
.
228
“Three generations of imbeciles are enough”
Buck v. Bell
, 274 U.S. 200, May 2, 1927.
229
which has never been overturned
Dan Vergano, “Re-Examining Supreme Court Support for Sterilization,”
USA Today
, November 19, 2008.
230
had been forcibly sterilized
Stephen Jay Gould, “Carrie Buck’s Daughter,”
Natural History
, July 1985.
231
Buck was lucid and of normal intelligence
Ibid.
232
who had been raped by a nephew of one of her foster parents
“Carrie Buck, Virginia’s Test Case.”
233
to avoid what they feared would otherwise be a scandal
Vergano, “Re-Examining Supreme Court Support for Sterilization.”
234
had syphilis and was unmarried when she gave birth to Carrie
“Carrie Buck, Virginia’s Test Case.”
235
declared Buck “congenitally and incurably defective”
Vergano, “Re-Examining Supreme Court Support for Sterilization.”
236
“The fix was in”
Ibid.
237
“shiftless, ignorant, and worthless”
“Carrie Buck, Virginia’s Test Case.”
238
“There is a look about it that is not quite normal”
Ibid.
239
was taken from her family and given to the family of Carrie’s rapist
Vergano, “Re-Examining Supreme Court Support for Sterilization.”
240
Carrie’s sister, Doris, was also sterilized at the same institution
Gould, “Carrie Buck’s Daughter.”
241
which was the basis for the Virginia statute upheld
Alex Wellerstein, “Harry Laughlin’s ‘Model Eugenical Sterilization Law.’ ”
242
President Woodrow Wilson
Vergano, “Re-Examining Supreme Court Support for Sterilization.”
243
Alexander Graham Bell
Glenn Kessler, “Herman Cain’s Rewriting of Birth-Control History,”
Washington Post
, Fact Checker blog, November 1, 2011,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/herman-cains-rewriting-of-birth-control-history/2011/10/31/gIQAr53uaM_blog.html
.
244
Margaret Sanger
Ibid.
245
remain celibates or have no children or only one or two
Harry Bruinius,
Better for All the World: The Secret History of Forced Sterilization and America’s Quest for Racial Purity
(New York: Knopf, 2006), pp. 190–91.
246
“To assist the race toward the elimination of the unfit”
Lori Robertson, “Cain’s False Attack on Planned Parenthood,”
FactCheck.org
, November 1, 2011,
http://factcheck.org/2011/11/cains-false-attack-on-planned-parenthood/
.
247
“More children from the fit, less from the unfit”
Daniel J. Kevles,
In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity
(New York: Knopf, 1985), p. 90.
248
“mixed-race individuals, single mothers with many children”
Nicole Pasulka, “Forced Sterilization for Transgender People in Sweden,”
Mother Jones
, January 25, 2012.
249
From 1972
Ibid.
250
could officially change his or her gender identification
Nicole Pasulka, “Sweden Moves to End Forced Sterilization of Transgender People,”
Mother Jones
, February 24, 2012.
251
“However, the Stockholm Administrative Court”
Rebecca Nelson, “Transgender People in Sweden No Longer Face Forced Sterilization,”
Time
, January 14, 2013.
252
“Sixteen other European countries”
Ibid.; Zack Ford, “Sweden Ends Forced Sterilization of Transgender People,” Think Progress, January 11, 2013,
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/01/11/1434121/sweden-ends-forced-sterilization-of-transgender-people/; Pasulka, “Forced Sterilization for Transgender People in Sweden.”
253, 254
apparently began in 2004 and became official state policy
Natalia Antelava, “Uzbekistan Carrying Out Forced Sterilisations, Say Women,”
Guardian
, April 20, 2012.
255
allegations by escaped activist Chen Guangcheng
Ashley Hayes, “Activists Allege Forced Abortions, Sterilizations in China,” CNN, April 30, 2012,
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/30/world/asia/china-forced-abortions/index.html
.
256
paid a bonus for each person who is sterilized
Gethin Chamberlain, “UK Aid Helps to Fund Forced Sterilisation of India’s Poor,”
Guardian
, April 14, 2012.
257
already completed the full genomes of fifty animal and plant species
“The Dragon’s DNA,”
Economist
.
258
But China’s principal focus seems to be
Tam, “Scientists Seek to Unravel the Mystery of IQ.”
259
China’s National Gene Bank in Shenzhen
“China Establishes National Gene Bank in Shenzhen,” Xinhua News Agency.
260
which genes are involved in determining intelligence
Tam, “Scientists Seek to Unravel the Mystery of IQ.”
261
link genetic information about a child to intelligence
“Bob Abernathy’s Interview with Francis Collins,”
PBS Religion and Ethics Weekly
, November 7, 2008.
262
eventually genes associated with intelligence may well be identified
Moheb Costandia, “Genetic Variants Build a Smarter Brain,”
Science
, June 19, 2012.
263
measured by Moore’s Law
Ian H. Stevenson and Konrad P. Kording, “How Advances in Neural Recording Affect Data Analysis,”
Nature Neuroscience
14, no. 2 (February 2011): 139–42.
264
which has only 302 neurons, has been completed
Jonah Lehrer, “Neuroscience: Making Connections,”
Nature
, January 28, 2009.
265
Nevertheless, with an estimated 100 billion neurons
Ibid.
266
and at least 100 trillion synaptic connections
“Scientists Have New Help Finding Their Way Around Brain’s Nooks and Crannies,”
ScienceDaily
, August 9, 2011,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110809184153.htm
.
267
mapping all of the proteins that are expressed by the genes
Human Genome Project, “The Science Behind the Human Genome Project: From Genome to Proteome,” March 26, 2008,
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/project/info.shtml
.
268
which themselves adopt multiple geometric forms
Jie Lang et al., “Geometric Structures of Proteins for Understanding Folding, Discriminating Natives and Predicting Biochemical Functions,” 2009,
http://gila-fw.bioengr.uic.edu/lab/papers/2009/protein-liang.pdf
.
269
biochemical modifications after they are translated by the genes
Christopher Walsh et al., “Protein Posttranslational Modifications: The Chemistry of Proteome Diversifications,”
Angewandte Chemie
, International Edition 44 (2005): 7342–72.
270
“in extraordinarily complex biochemical cascades”
Evan R. Goldstein, “The Strange Neuroscience of Immortality,”
Chronicle of Higher Education
, July 16, 2012.
271
Exploiting advances in the new field of optogenetics
Karl Deisseroth, “Optogenetics: Controlling the Brain with Light,”
Scientific American
, October 20, 2010.
272
corresponding genes, which then become optical switches
Matthew Hougan and Bruce Altevogt,
From Molecules to Minds: Challenges for the 21st Century
(Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2008).
273
observe its effects on other neurons with a green light
Ibid.; Carl E. Schoonover and Abby Rabinowitz, “Control Desk for the Neural Switchboard,”
New York Times
, May 16, 2011.
274
control of symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease
Amy Barth, “Controlling Brains with a Flick of a Light Switch,”
Discover Magazine
, September 2012.
275
by having each category light up in a different color
Hougan and Altevogt,
From Molecules to Minds;
Schoonover and Rabinowitz, “Control Desk for the Neural Switchboard.”
276
much more detailed visual map of neuronal connections
Hougan and Altevogt,
From Molecules to Minds
.
277
decoding other parts of the connectome is thereby accelerated
Joshua T. Vogelstein, “Q&A: What Is the Open Connectome Project?,”
Neural Systems & Circuits
, November 18, 2011.
278
scans of body parts, tracks blood flow in the brain to neurons
“Shiny New Neuroscience Technique (Optogenetics) Verifies a Familiar Method (fMRI),”
Discover Magazine
, May 17, 2010.
279
take in blood containing the oxygen and glucose needed for energy
Ibid.; Leonie Welberg, “Brain Metabolism: Astrocytes Bridge the Gap,”
Nature Reviews Neuroscience
10, no. 86 (February 2009): 86.
280
difference between oxygenated blood and oxygen-depleted blood
“Major Advance in MRI Allows Much Faster Brain Scans,”
ScienceDaily
, January 5, 2011.
281
identify which areas of the brain are active at any given moment
“Shiny New Neuroscience Technique (Optogenetics) Verifies a Familiar Method (fMRI),”
Discover Magazine
.
282
discoveries about where specific functions are located in the brain
Pagan Kennedy, “The Cyborg in Us All,”
New York Times Magazine
, September 18, 2011.