2 March 1998 
 
In progress, okay? 
 
While I was waiting for my water to get hot, I looked out the window in  
the lounge on the 13th floor of the math building.  From there, we look  
down on several different buildings, one of which had some topless  
sunbathers (men -- gotcha!) last spring.  One thing about New York, even  
before the proliferation of video cameras about the burg, if one is not  
surrounded by 6 opaque surfaces (top, bottom & around -- well I guess it  
could be one opaque surface -- a sphere) someone could be watching you.  I  
was happy for awhile this fall, when the apartment building across from my  
windows was vacant -- I could prance about in any incarnation with windows  
open and only fear that the electricians could see me.  People may take  
affront at the cameras mounted at Washington Square Park, but one should  
always be aware that people (and dogs) could be watching. 
 
The only thing I have against the cameras is that they only push the  
dealers out of the Park -- evidently into the doorways of people's  
apartments nearby.  Even if the police had enough money to blanket the  
whole damn city with cameras, the guys will still be dealing.  I don't  
know why people seem to have found marijuana dealers threatening, or  
irritating.  They'd just say "Smoke?" and that was it.  I mean, the little  
bands of goth teens should seem more threatening to whatever queasy people  
these are. 
 
After tea was done, I read a discarded Harper's magazine, had an essay on  
bioethics, genetics, eugenics, etc.  Though I've got to say that much  
of the debate is overblown.  Those who cower at the thought of a "Brave  
New World" forget that it would take massive production of babies to  
achieve such eugenics.  Consider all the "reproductive technologies" out  
there now -- all extremely expensive, and uncertain in results -- for even  
if one gets fertilizations (very easy), they've got to "take" to the womb,  
which might decide to do its own form of natural abortion.  Until one can  
have total extra-uterine development of a fetus, and cheaply, there is  
little danger of the world being overrun by "supermen" or deliberately  
created cretins (the Epsilons...) 
 
So let's say one can have cloning, total genetic engineering, good 
prediction of genetically-induced diseases and traits -- who will this 
affect?  The rich.  Or, at least, the rich-enough-to-get-what-they-want.  
So we have anxious parents, spending $50K and beyond, to get in vitro 
fertilizations, have all the embryos genetically typed and analyzed, and 
then implant them with little assurance that the embryo will get to fetus 
stage and then to term.  If you think trying to get your child into the 
right preschool was fun, now you've got to make sure that they have the 
genetic right stuff to get into Harvard and, even more, do something with 
that degree.  The upper class will get to be so genetically inbred that 
when the next plague comes through they'll be wiped off the face of the 
earth.  Or something like that.  
 
I'm not particularly worried about my descendents being in competition  
with genetically engineered perfect people.  I come from a family with a  
history of diabetes, heart disease, epilepsy, glaucoma, hypertension,  
dandruff, prominent chins and even larger foreheads, balding, short  
stature (a.k.a. stubbiness), lack of enamel on teeth.  That's all I can  
remember right now.  Anyway, with those handicaps, my family has gotten  
along with the world alright.  Well enough to keep spurting out children.   
Which is the only thing that counts in the Darwinian game.