heritability

I've been doing a literature review the last couple of days on the heritability of several behavioral disorders - Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Conduct Disorder. Research has shown that these disorders are highly heritable, and are correlated with both poverty and prison time. The combination of ODD and ADHD are especially unhappy, with high levels of aggression, impulsivity, and lack of problem solving, planning and organizing. Several studies have shown this combination to be significantly heritable (.65 to .72)

And all this made me think of Tepper's A Gate to Women's Country.

What would a society which is trying to breed out conduct disorders look like? I suppose that depends on their methods. Mike, who has severe ADHD and dyslexia, but not ODD, has passed a measure of ADHD and dyslexia to all of his sons. And in all of them, I've seen over and over again how having people who think differently and approach a problem differently is advantageous.

If we tried to breed out these negative traits, would we be breeding out an important part of what it is to be human? And if we do nothing, if we let the status quo continue, do we doom generations of humans to prison and poverty? I don't have any answers, but I'm intrigued with the questions. If the next hundred years is a crucible for our race, I wonder what will come out of the fire.

flash fic #1

The Expressionist

The canvas she painted was in her head, behind her eyes. Each lover was a different color, and she smeared them across her palette; blues and greens, yellows and oranges.

“Literally,” she told the soft chinned freshman who left his twenty-sider on the nightstand. “You are robin egg blue.” He called it synesthesia but she shrugged, uninterested in labels. His kisses tasted of computer code and she painted her canvas with the color of her orgasm, soft strokes of blue.

Much later in the game, she realized the need of a spot of red for emphasis. And black for boundaries.