Genetic Engineering and Intelligence

This is a picture of a tobacco plant genetically engineered through recombinant DNA technology to express the luciferase gene found in fireflies that produces bioluminescence. This picture is very important. And not just for big tobacco companies. In fact, I don't even have to use a complete sentence to explain why: humans, intelligence, accelerated progress.

Forget about all those other implications -- engineered height, strength, health, eyesight, hearing, metabolism, lemons, etc. Intelligence, once increased through genetic engineering, will allow for everything else to be achieved much faster.

For now, let's say I'm only talking about mathematical intelligence. While this is still extremely difficult to define, we all have a sense of what this means. The well-oiled face of the tiny Singaporean who always sits at the front of your analysis class might come to mind. And don't we all believe that some people are simply born better at math, with a greater innate potential for it? Sure environmental factors play a large role, how large exactly is always debatable, but genetics limit how far environmental factors can take you in the end. I'll use myself as an example. I have a feeling that no matter how hard I study and no matter how much I want it, I can never produce the kind of work that the guys who collect Nobels and Fields Medals produce. I am smart, but that's just something else entirely.

Or put another way, let's hold all factors besides genetics constant. Let's say two kids of the same race/gender/socioeconomic status go to the same school, are driven like rabid monkeys, and study for an obscene number of hours a day. If they're given the same problem set, will they both do equally well? No. And this scenario is really not uncommon, especially given the competitiveness of college admissions. We must look to the last variable for our answer: the must've been some difference in genetics that led to this.

So if the potential for math is at some level genetically based, would it be crazy to think there might be some extremely complex and intricate network of genes that controls this? And what if we were to tap into that network and alter it, improve upon it? What if we vastly increased the innate mathematical aptitudes of every person on Earth? What if even the simplest, menial workers had IQs that were off the charts? The answer to all this is progress. Much faster progress. So why don't we consider this more?

Anyways, just a thought.