

Eliminating racial and gender discrimination - amichail

I think personalized DNA sequencing is the way to go.  When applying for a job, include your DNA sequence as part of the application.<p>You could take this even further by providing real-time DNA comparisons (at least on genes that you care about) with people who are nearby.  Such analysis could give you some guidance as to whether you should start a conversation with a stranger say.
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aston
Nobody's pointing out the fallacy that DNA is just the start of how a person
actually is? Even if there were genes that were easily identifiable for
beauty, personality, intelligence, leadership or anything else you cared
about, there's no guarantee that potential would have been fulfilled.

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amichail
Of course, effort is required as well. But at least you can use this approach
to prune out candidates where that potential is lacking.

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inklesspen
Yeah, that's a great idea. Nobody's gonna stare at the hot chick's boobs when
they've got her DNA on file! Totally scalable idea, amichall.

Well, maybe in your world it is. See, in the real world, people don't give a
crap about your dna. What matters is that you are a lazy black or a slut or
whatever other stereotype they want to put on you.

Profiling on DNA would just give another thing to discriminate against. Go
watch Gattaca sometime, kthx.

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amichail
Discrimination is a form of probabilistic reasoning in the presence of
incomplete knowledge. Provide more information about the individual and
discrimination will go away eventually. Companies aim to maximize their
profits and it is in their best interest to hire the best people.

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inklesspen
Companies aim to do many things, because they are a gestalt entity. In many
companies, the higher-ups aim to perpetuate an 'old-boy' network, rewarding
their friends with high-paying cushy jobs. They are actually aiming to
discriminate, amichall.

In addition, nobody is going to sit down, go through someone's DNA sequence,
and say "oh, now I have more knowledge about John Freeman. I am going to
discard my prejudices against black people because I have a sequence of
letters in front of me! Rational thought is so great!"

No, you eliminate discrimination through education and confrontation. Each
generation that mixes with other groups will discriminate less than the one
that came before.

In conclusion, you, sir, are either severely misinformed about the world or an
idiot. Or both.

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amichail
If hiring the best people means the difference between your company succeeding
or failing, then maybe you will put aside your prejudices and hire the best
candidate for a job.

As for going through a DNA sequence, obviously you would have software to look
for patterns that are beneficial to your company. The check would be automated
and quick.

And please, no need for ad hominem attacks.

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inklesspen
That's not an ad hominem attack. I wasn't saying your argument is wrong
because you don't know how the world works. I was saying your argument is
wrong because of X, Y, and Z, and incidentally you don't know how the world
works.

Your responses continue to show that you don't know how the world works. You
aren't going to find DNA patterns that are beneficial to your company.
Identical twins with identical DNA can have incredibly different
personalities. Humans share 94% of our DNA with chimpanzees, amichall.

In conclusion, please go watch Gattaca and then go join the real world for a
bit.

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pg
_That's not an ad hominem attack._

Technically, perhaps, but it was name-calling. I'd appreciate it if you
wouldn't do that.

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brlewis
You have to get extremely technical to claim that "either severely misinformed
about the world or an idiot" is not an ad-hominem attack. Perhaps a compiler
could not prove that the ad-hominem is reachable, but all us humans see it.

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cstejerean
Watch Gattaca to see this idea in action.

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amichail
Gattaca is fiction.

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dfranke
Let's keep it that way.

