Genetic Progress by Voluntarily Conducted Germinal Choice 
direct mutagenic operations on the genetic material. In addi- 
tion, some of them think that much could be done by modifying 
development and physiology, and by supplying much more 
sophisticated, more or less built-in, artificial aids. Others, dis- 
gusted with the limitations and the patchwork constitution of all 
natural organisms, boldly say that completely artificial con- 
trivances can and should be built to replace mankind®. 
Let all these enthusiasts try their tricks, the more the merrier. 
But I find myself a conservative on this issue. It seems to me that 
for a long time yet to come (in terms of the temporal scale of 
human history thus far), man at his present best is unlikely to 
be excelled, according to any of man’s own accepted value 
systems, by pure artifacts. And although artificial aids should 
become ever better developed, and integrated as harmoniously 
as possible with the human organism, it is more economical in 
the end to have developmental and physiological improvements 
of the organism placed on a genetic basis, where practicable, 
than to have to institute them in every generation anew by 
elaborate treatments of the soma. 
Finally, as regards changes in the genetic constitution 
(genotype) itself, there is certainly enormous room for improve- 
ment. However, the genetic material of man isso transcendently 
complex in its make-up and workings that for some centuries, 
at least, we should be able to make genetic progress on a wider 
front, with better balance, and more rapidly, by selecting among 
the genotypes already on hand, whose physical (phenotypic) 
expressions have been observed, than by intervening with what 
I call nano-needles* to cause pre-specified changes in them. At 
any rate, we will be much more likely some day to attain such 
finesse if we are forthright enough to make use, in the meantime, 
of the cruder methods that are available at present. 
Man as a whole must rise to become worthy of his own best 
achievements. Unless the average man can understand and 
appreciate the world that scientists have discovered, unless he 
can learn to comprehend the techniques he now uses, and their 
remote and larger effects, unless he can enter into the thrill of 
* Nano-needles—=micro-micro needles. 
255 
