4 Comments

> For instance, extroversion is strongly related to fertility in modern societies, but this was perhaps not always the case.

No need for "perhaps"; if extraversion had always been strongly related to fertility, it would have been fixed (if the effect was positive) or eliminated (if negative).

Expand full comment

I'm skeptical that IVF will ever be used at scale by women who don't have to use it. Becoming a Bene Tleilax Axlotl Tank is not appealing to most given that IVF involves a series of painful procedures for women and these days reproduction becomes more of a lifestyle choice rather than something crucial for a woman so there is little appetite for unnecessary pain.

Caesarean births are popular because they decrease pain compared to normal birth while IVF is more painful, expensive, invasive and much less fun than the old fashioned fertilization method.

IVF increased in frequency because fertility treatments become more widespread for a variety of reasons, including older moms but I'm not sure that there is a proportional increase in the use of sperm donors as male fertility is far less affected by aging so all IVF babies I know of personally were made using the husband's sperm, not a donor's.

Given the current mores across the West for parents to improve their child's intelligence with gene editing will probably be a social and political faux pas if not outright forbidden by law. Even China is hostile to gene editing as proven by the He Jiankui scandal.

Expand full comment