A Dim View of the Future
The BBC reported on the predictions of young, hotshot evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry with nary an admonishment or rebuttal of his horribly racist and classist assumptions. I suppose I should not be so enraged by "science" produced for a men's television channel in Britain; rather I take issue with the BBC carrying to the extreme neutral, nonjudgemental reporting. The very act of publishing Curry's theories lends them credibility. Would it not be worthwhile to cite that others may disagree with such gems as:
The descendants of the genetic upper class would be tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent, and creative and a far cry from the "underclass" humans who would have evolved into dim-witted, ugly, squat goblin-like creatures.
I am sure there are quite a few short, stocky computer nerds who would take issue with such a prediction. Oh, and please do not forget the entire population of Asia.
From Bethy
Commented October 18th, 2006 12:31 pm
Sounds like social darwinism for the 21st century, yay!
hey, you made a profile for me, that's pretty awesome.
From laura
Commented October 25th, 2006 12:54 pm
Unfortunately there's a lot of this kind of naive reporting of controversial scientific proposals in the press. A recent one from the New Scientist comes to mind (http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2006/09/a_plea_to_save_new_scientist.html). Every time I read the science section in CNN or even BBC it makes me question more and more all the other stories I get from them.
From Charlie
Commented October 25th, 2006 3:58 pm
I always kind of figured asians were more evolutionarily advanced than other races, because they seem to have the least body hair, putting them farthest from apes in terms of modifying their environment to suit them. Also, they embrace robots entering their society and culture instead of making terminator movies.
But I've learned a bit since I came up with that, and now I just wonder why the Discovery Institute has to be in downtown Seattle. Wouldn't it do better in Florida next to a scientology temple?
(So yeah, when it comes to ridiculous arguments, you have to fight fire with fire, right? =)