I was cleaning out a chemical storage closet at work. A hydrogen chloride container leaked out onto some iodine containers. I picked one up (bare handed) and sat it down in the grass. About thirty seconds later, I noticed the steam boiling up from around the bottom of the container. This is about 45 seconds worth of contact.

  • Maybe? Natural selection seems to work for the rest of everything in nature. But humans are special, aren’t we? Above nature; different rules apply to us, nature itself treats us differently.

    I do agree that humans are fundamentally different in that more of our individual value is learned than inherited. OTOH, more of our value is learned than inherited, and that’s where the problem lies. It’s not there genes, it’s the parents and the parenting. I’m not suggesting we’ll improve humanity by removing stupidity through evolution; I’m saying there are a lot of people who I don’t believe are fit to raise children. And there’s a corpus of examples that could support that argument; how about that guy who literally shook his infant to death last week? Good father, him?

    I’m not a parent myself, and I will never be one. Maybe I’d make a good father, maybe not. But I’m not breeding, so taking me out doesn’t affect the gene pool; I’m not playing in the gene pool.

    And, no, I did not misunderstand the point. What I said was that if I could get a guarantee that others would also be removed, I’d volunteer to be in the group.

    That was hyperbole, BTW; if I really believed it, I’d go to a Trump rally with a bunch of C4 and ball bearings wrapped around my torso. Even if I were an Einstein, it’d be a net benefit to humanity.

    • PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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      6 months ago

      Lol well, fair enough!

      I still aggressively assert that it still benefits humanity to protect each other, even people who don’t know they need it.

      But that’s a pretty reasonable response, I have to admit lol

      • Ah, but I agree with you! It’s commendable that we care for our weak who would otherwise die.

        The other wolf, though, thinks there’s a good chance the stupid are going to drive us to extinction.

        Thanks for not taking offense when you legitimately could have. Reason 1 why Lemmy > Reddit.