Bateson was acutely aware of the potential social and political impact of the newborn science. "What will happen when ... enlightenment actually comes to pass and the facts of heredity are ... commonly known?" he wrote, with striking prescience, in 1905. "One thing is certain: man- kind will begin to interfere; perhaps not in England, but in some country more ready to break with the past and eager for 'national efficiency.' ... Ignorance of the remoter consequences of interference has never long postponed such experiments." More than any scientist before him, Bateson also grasped the idea that the discontinuous nature of genetic information carried vast implications for the future of human genetics. If genes were, indeed, independent particles of information, then it should be possible to select, purify, and manipulate these particles independently from one another. Genes for "desirable" attributes might be selected or augmented, while undesirable genes might be eliminated from the gene pool. In principle, a scientist should be able to change the "composition of individuals," and of nations, and leave a permanent mark on human identity.
"When power is discovered, man always turns to it," Bateson wrote darkly. "The science of heredity will soon provide power on a stupendous scale; and in some country, at some time not, perhaps, far distant, that power will be applied to control the composition of a nation. Whether the institution of such control will ultimately be good or bad for that na- tion, or for humanity at large, is a separate question." He had preempted the century of the gene.
Improved environment and education may better the generation already born. Improved blood will better every generation to come. —Herbert Walter, Genetics Most Eugenists are Euphemists. I mean merely that short words startle them, while long words soothe them. And they are utterly incapable of translating the one into the other.... Say to them "The ... citizen should... make sure that the burden of longevity in the previous generations does not become disproportionate and intolerable, especially to the females"; say this to them and they sway slightly to and fro.. Say to them "Murder your mother," and they sit up quite suddenly. —G. K. Chesterton, Eugenics and Other Evils
In 1883, one year after Charles Darwin's death, Darwin's cousin Francis Galton published a provocative book—lnquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development—in which he laid out a strategic plan for the improve- ment of the human race. Galton's idea was simple: he would mimic the mechanism of natural selection. If nature could achieve such remark- able effects on animal populations through survival and selection, Gal- ton imagined accelerating the process of refining humans via human intervention. The selective breeding of the strongest, smartest, "fittest" humans—unnatural selection—Galton imagined, could achieve over just a few decades what nature had been attempting for eons. Galton needed a word for this strategy. "We greatly want a brief word to express the science of improving stock," he wrote, "to give the more suitable
"When power is discovered, man always turns to it," Bateson wrote darkly. "The science of heredity will soon provide power on a stupendous scale; and in some country, at some time not, perhaps, far distant, that power will be applied to control the composition of a nation. Whether the institution of such control will ultimately be good or bad for that na- tion, or for humanity at large, is a separate question." He had preempted the century of the gene.
Improved environment and education may better the generation already born. Improved blood will better every generation to come. —Herbert Walter, Genetics Most Eugenists are Euphemists. I mean merely that short words startle them, while long words soothe them. And they are utterly incapable of translating the one into the other.... Say to them "The ... citizen should... make sure that the burden of longevity in the previous generations does not become disproportionate and intolerable, especially to the females"; say this to them and they sway slightly to and fro.. Say to them "Murder your mother," and they sit up quite suddenly. —G. K. Chesterton, Eugenics and Other Evils
In 1883, one year after Charles Darwin's death, Darwin's cousin Francis Galton published a provocative book—lnquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development—in which he laid out a strategic plan for the improve- ment of the human race. Galton's idea was simple: he would mimic the mechanism of natural selection. If nature could achieve such remark- able effects on animal populations through survival and selection, Gal- ton imagined accelerating the process of refining humans via human intervention. The selective breeding of the strongest, smartest, "fittest" humans—unnatural selection—Galton imagined, could achieve over just a few decades what nature had been attempting for eons. Galton needed a word for this strategy. "We greatly want a brief word to express the science of improving stock," he wrote, "to give the more suitable
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