I'm not worried about the guy who went to Vietnam or Iraq and got his dick shot off. Yeah, IVF is his only option and I'm glad it exists. Hell, I am a Vietnam era* veteran. That guy could have been me.

What concerns me are people who are genetically deficient who "want what other people have." If it would just effect them, I would not care. The problem comes in when their genetically deficient children weaken the gene-pool.

*I never went to Vietnam. I was stationed at 8th & I, and from there went to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. That's why I wrote Vietnam era. I was available to be sent to Vietnam, but I was stationed elsewhere.

I know all too many couples who have left off breeding until the female is in her 40s and therefore less likely to bring a sprog to term

Or worse having a child that suffers from trisomy-21.

We need science in the classrooms so bad it hurts. So many people don't understand that girls are born with all the ovum they will ever make. During their lives those ovum are bombarded by radiation and just plain get old. Boys are different. We just make what we need, over and over and over and over. And then we just spray the stuff all over the place. :)

Seig, Heil! :)

I don't care if the tech is 100 years old. Nor do I care how much money they make.

Look at it this way, I have spent many years raising my son. I don't want him falling in love with some deficient girl, marrying her, then discovering they can't have children. That takes my son out of the gene-pool unless he cheats on the girl and produces a child elsewhere. I don't know about how you would feel about that, but I don't want any grandchild of mine raised by a single mother. I was in the house for him. He needs to be in the house for his children.

This is not rocket science.

If it were up to me, yes.

I argue with my wife about this all the time. She thinks I'm some kind if eugenics moster. I argue otherwise. I am not trying to shape humanity. I am trying to prevent shaping.

Those are spermatazoa. Technically they are not human. They only have 26 chromosomes.

The post above yours is 100% correct. Once a human sperm penetrates a human ova and they combine DNA they become a gamete. That is a human being.

Some may argue that it is not human because it does not look human. I argue appearance is no indicator. Look at photos of yourself as a baby, at three years old, eight years old, twenty years old, fifty years old, eighty years old, and so on. Appearance changes throughout your life cycle and cannot be used to define humanity.

I'm not so sure about DNA either. After all, if I use DNA as a measure of humanity I must question if someone with trisomy 21 is human. After all, such a person does not have 26 pairs of chromosomes, and by such a definition would not be human. There are also super-males and super-females to take into consideration. If we use chromosomal count as the indicator of humanity, would it be OK to kill someone who does not have the proper chromosomal count?

Your post reminds me of a discussion in my genetics class. We were discussing deer populations and the class had all assumed that only the biggest and strongest would pass on their genes. We were then told to not discount the sneaky little bastard who knocked up one of the does while the two big guys were fighting. :)

If you need IVF, then you are deficient and should NOT reproduce!

When such people artificially reproduce they are creating children who are likely to be as deficient as the parents when it comes to reproduction. That would not be a problem by itself. The problem ensues when these deficient children then have a relationship with a normal person - if they have problems, they go the IVF route to solve the problem.

Did you see what just happened? If continued long enough, humanity might find itself in the position of requiring IVF to reproduce.

I know the above seems harsh, but it is a risk that I have been watching with some consternation since the first "test-tube" baby was born in the 1970s. Since then there seems to be an explosion of people, who otherwise could not conceive, pushing out quadruplets, quintuplets, and more, all the while depleting the gene-pool.

I am not predicting the end of the human population. I am concerned.

If you cannot have a baby by normal sexual relations, you should not have children!

Comics are not books; they are pamphlets. :)

Has it occurred to you that the link may have been hijacked? In other words, it may have originally linked to something Asus wanted you to see. Then some guy named Kent came along and spoofed the shit out of it so it now points to his goof site.

I suppose the thing with most computer users these days is that since they don't feel like they're in control of anything they don't mind giving that away.

JEZUSFUCKINKRIST! This is the whole point of personal computers! The whole "computer revolution" thing of the 1970s, starting with the Altair, was to give people control over the data governing their lives.

I look around thirty years later and find DMCA, corporations with databanks stuffed with peoples' personal data, and people who think the internet is the only reason to own a computer. WTF?

Back in the 1970s there was a comic book fanzine that I just LOVED! It was called "The Heroine Addict".

You're probably only twenty years old and don't remember a time when there were only three networks and television went off after midnight. I grew up in the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area and was lucky to have an independant station, KTVU channel 2, and a public broadcast station, KQED channel 9. Most communities were not so blessed.

Star Trek was on the air about the same time as That Girl*, Petticoat Junction, Mr. Terrific, and a host of other shows that you have probably never heard of. Good television was RARE!

Star Trek was spectacular! Yes, for every "City On The Edge Of Forever" there was a salt critter episode. For every "Amok Time" there was the Al Capone episode. For every "Space Seed" there were Chinese people on another planet who were over 1,000 years old in a show set 300 years in the future.

Star Trek is that rare gem, like 2001: A Space Odyssey that is enjoyable 30 years after production. Say what you like about the space hippies episode, but understand that when you try to call Star Trek as a whole a "turd" you display your Anonymous Cowardice and ignorance.

* I actually enjoyed That Girl and would probably watch reruns if I knew when they played.

ie, are Asians and Europeans just as capable of certain African peoples of sprinting or long distance running?

sigh...

You do know that it was not too long ago that it was hypothesized that Afrikans* had "fast twitch" muscles that enabled great speed, but reduced long distance running, AND that Europeans had "slow twitch" muscles that were poorly adapted for speed, but excelled at long distance running. This was all prior to the 1990s when all those Afrikan runners started winning marathons.

Long story short, people are people. We all work with what we have. I have seen many examples of people with huge potential go to waste, and many examples of people who just refuse to lay down and die despite tremendous obstacles.

* I spell Afrika with a "k" because Afrikans spell it with a "k".

...will make the person who came up with the solution filthy rich!

This question is asking the fundamental cryptography question of resolving identity. Whomever comes up with a solution for this problem will have an opportunity to become filthy rich as banks, military organizations, and other entities strive to verify that the data Bob receives is from Alice and not that cunt Susan who is up to no-good. This is very similar to the question last week asking us to solve the business model case for a publisher. No one knows how to post material to the internet and make a profit. The person who solves that will have every publisher lining up at his door throwing wads of money inside.

I appreciate the idea of getting the masses of Slashdot to seek a solution, but to tell you the truth, if I had a solution I would not reveal it here.