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Daniel_Burfoot comments on Open Thread, Aug. 8 - Aug 14. 2016 - Less Wrong Discussion
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I used to worry that dysgenesis was leading us towards a world in which everyone was really dumb. That fear has been at least partially alleviated by new research showing that more educated people are having more kids. But now I worry that dysgenesis is leading us towards a world in which everyone is really sick.
Historically, human reproduction used the following strategy: have 6 or 8 kids, and the healthiest 3 or 4 would make it to adulthood. Now couples have 2 or 3 kids, and they almost all make it to adulthood. But that implies that lots of marginally-healthy children are surviving, thanks to medical technology, and so the gene pool is getting less healthy.
Look around you and count the number of people who have some kind of debilitating allergy, chronic illness, or mental health condition. Does it seem scary to you? What if that percentage goes up dramatically in the future, while the conditions themselves also get worse?
Could you please post a link if available?
I believe the impression is that lower and higher education women are having the same number of children by age 50. There's still a problem that education correlates with age at first child, and so you have fewer generations of more educated people running around in equilibrium.
Not everybody who makes it to adulthood has kids. Various disabled people don't find a partner with whom to have kids.
I'm relatively confident that medical progress will be stronger than the effects you talk about in the next century. Sooner or later I expect genetic engineering to replace natural selection as the driving factor for human DNA, so the effects of the selection become less important.
Presumably this is the kind of thing that is fixable by widespread genetic technologies. Once you can identify and/or fix problematic zygotes, the problem disappears.
Or just straight-up medical cures and treatments.
Also, I have my own medical problems that cause me suffering, but I would still rather be alive than not.