What could have the world become with out the perverse science of Eugenics ever making it onto the world stage? Can it be prevented from coming to the forefront? Or is it in man's nature to create something this evil?
Which kind of Eugenics, the more innocent kind that promoted Scientists and Athletes reproducing, the bad (but not as bad as things got) kind that made various people involuntarily sterile or the racist kind that believed in the notion of a 'Master Race'?
both, the idea in general does not take hold.
If you butterfly away the theory of evolution you'd probably do away with eugenics as well.
If you butterfly away the theory of evolution you'd probably do away with eugenics as well.
You also need to prevent the discovery of genes.
Come to think of it, actually, Plato advocated something similar in the Republic. So, I think that some people are probably going to support eugenics no matter what.
Still, the fact remains that the idea did seem to take off in the late 19th century more than it had before. Thinking the matter over, I wonder if the cause might be the increased... scientificisation (for want of a better word) of human nature, which held/holds that human affairs can be governed according to regular, "scientific" principles, and that it's both possible and desirable for a country's intellectual elite to learn these principles and use them to run society. (It's probably no coincidence that eugenics and Marxism became popular at roughly the same time.) Remove this worldview, and you'd probably butterfly away eugenics as well.
Is the idea of nobility a form of Eugenics? Only those born into the nobility are fit to be part of it, and only those of noble birth can marry and legitimately reproduce with others of noble birth. In practice nobles tried hard to keep nobility to themselves.
But... Doesn't it go on since... well... ever? I mean- even Spartans had (reportedly) been throwing kids from the rock if they weren't good enough. Eugenics isn't new idea, it's been around always- and even instinct prevents breeding with someone considered not attractive. Or mothers leaving their deformed babies (or even killing them) somewhere. Sure- idea of actually breeding "good genes with good genes" might not be written, but to actually remove it from conscience, one would have to change the very nature of humanity.
True.
There's even stuff like cats eating deformed kittens and the like so...could even say its a fundamental part of nature.