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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJeffrey Epstein Hoped To Seed Human Race With His DNA, (NYT)
Jeffrey E. Epstein, the wealthy financier and accused sex trafficker, had an unusual dream: He hoped to seed the human race with his DNA by impregnating women at his vast New Mexico ranch. Mr. Epstein over the years confided to scientists and others about his scheme, according to four people familiar with his thinking, although there is no evidence that it ever came to fruition.
Mr. Epsteins vision reflected his longstanding fascination with what has become known as transhumanism: the science of improving the human population through technologies like genetic engineering and artificial intelligence. Critics have likened transhumanism to a modern-day version of eugenics, the discredited field of improving the human race through controlled breeding.
Mr. Epstein, who was charged in July with the sexual trafficking of girls as young as 14, was a serial illusionist: He lied about the identities of his clients his wealth, his financial prowess, his personal achievements. But he managed to use connections and charisma to cultivate valuable relationships with business and political leaders. Interviews with more than a dozen of his acquaintances, as well as public documents, show that he used the same tactics to insinuate his way into an elite scientific community, thus allowing him to pursue his interests in eugenics and other fringe fields like cryogenics.
Lawyers for Mr. Epstein, who has pleaded not guilty to the sex-trafficking charges, did not respond to requests for comment.
Even after his 2008 conviction on charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor, Mr. Epstein attracted a glittering array of prominent scientists. They included the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann, who discovered the quark; the theoretical physicist and best-selling author Stephen Hawking; the paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen J. Gould; Oliver Sacks, the neurologist and best-selling author; George M. Church, a molecular engineer who has worked to identify genes that could be altered to create superior humans; and the M.I.T. theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek, a Nobel laureate.
The lure for some of the scientists was Mr. Epsteins money. He dangled financing for their pet projects. Some of the scientists said that the prospect of financing blinded them to the seriousness of his sexual transgressions, and even led them to give credence to some of Mr. Epsteins half-baked scientific musings.
Scientists gathered at dinner parties at Mr. Epsteins Manhattan mansion, where Dom Pérignon and expensive wines flowed freely, even though Mr. Epstein did not drink. He hosted buffet lunches at Harvards Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, which he had helped start with a $6.5 million donation. Others flew to conferences sponsored by Mr. Epstein in the United States Virgin Islands and were feted on his private island there. Once, the scientists including Mr. Hawking crowded on board a submarine that Mr. Epstein had chartered...
Read More, http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/jeffrey-epstein-hoped-to-seed-human-race-with-his-dna/ar-AAF8Mbq?ocid=HPCOMMDHP15
dawg day
(7,947 posts)and his power of attorney... and his big house in Manhattan (that ended up as Epstein's).
appalachiablue
(41,145 posts)Sanity Claws
(21,849 posts)If he really said that, it makes him sound as though he were a space alien who needed to seed humans so that they could evolve.
appalachiablue
(41,145 posts)greatauntoftriplets
(175,742 posts)appalachiablue
(41,145 posts)Aussie105
(5,401 posts)turns out to be another deluded cult leader who wanted to shape the human race in his image?
Seems to be a few around in America, today and in the past. Never ends well. Right, James Warren Jones? (And a whole list of others.)
Eugenics was discredited decades ago. But it's still there, in the background.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,862 posts)Whose DNA is in a shockingly large number of people.
Collectively we are much better off with a variety of DNA in our gene pool.
brush
(53,787 posts)Last edited Thu Aug 1, 2019, 12:46 PM - Edit history (1)
Glad this criminal is off the streets.