I believe we are the only species on the planet that does not allow genetic weeding to happen with our children. I understand why we don’t, of course – we are humanely human – but as this quote indicates this not be optimal evolutionary strategy. There was a movie several years ago called Idiocracy that presented the case for what can happen if the least fit people – in the movie’s premise this was expressed as the dumbest people – have all the babies. The movie didn’t take itself all that seriously, but the premise rings true, doesn’t it? Who has most of the children in the United States? Which countries are struggling the most with overcrowding? Looked at from a different angle, though, it’s possible that evolution is smarter than we think we are. The educated childless couples will die out without reproducing, and leave their technological advances to the children of those who reproduce. Sooner or later a disaster in the vein of the Idiocracy premise might lead to a wholescale ‘weeding’, leaving a smaller, leaner population of those who were ‘selected’ for their survival skills, educated on the perils of overpopulation, and with all that technology to work with. Will they be as compassionate about weeding out the weak, and as cavalier about reproduction?
Bob Gregory's Gallery of Renown 