Re: Are there smartdrugs?

Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net)
Wed, 13 Oct 1999 15:35:10 -0700 (PDT)

> Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
>
> > [...] I think one of the most valuable contributions any
> > of us could make to the future is to breed like rabbits,
> > and fight harder to blast the silly myth of overpopulation
> > that prevents otherwise intelligent men and women from
> > doing the same.
>
> Why not take a trip to the local sperm bank and donate some
> of those good Extropian genes?

I thought of that, but unfortunately I'm not an ideal candidate. To a sperm bank and their consumers, IQ isn't everything. I do have that going for me, and I'm tall, generally fit, and don't have any genetic diseases that I know about (there is some evidence that Meniere's disease is heritable but it is weak). But the bank wants someone with a very high sperm count so inseminations are more successful, and the consumers want donors with a wide variety of desirable traits and absence of bad ones. For instance, they like athletic ability and some evidence of industry and ambition (such as business or academic achievement). I score low on both those scales. I can also nearly guarantee a son that will be bald when he's 30, and with a strong likelihood of heart problems (I somehow managed to avoid the family heart problems so far--no such luck with the hairline). And of course with artifical insemination, I can't take advantage of my abundant sexual talents. :)

My best chances for procreation are going to be doing it the old fashioned way: charming the pants off a woman who likes computer nerds. 

--
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
"All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC