The Genius Factory

The WSJ article Turbulence in the Gene Pool describes how David Plotz's "The Genius Factory" tells a wonderfully readable and eye-opening account a "genius" sperm bank founded by businessman Robert K. Graham in 1980.

Graham feared that, in late-20th-century America, 'cradle-to-grave social welfare programs paid incompetents and imbeciles to reproduce. As a result, 'retrograde humans' were swamping the intelligent minority.' The only way to save mankind was for the best intellectual 'specimens' of the species to reproduce at a higher rate. And the best way to make that happen was to have the planet's brightest -- Nobel Prize-winners -- donate their genetic material for the betterment of humanity. 'Ten men of high intelligence,' Graham mused, 'can be more effective than 1,000 morons.' He envisioned replacing Darwin's natural selection with 'intelligent selection.

Regardless of the ethical merits of Graham's plan -- or, one should say, its demerits -- the bank was doomed to failure. Most Nobelists are older, relative to the rest of the population. Their sperm is generally of substandard quality -- lower in number and, so to speak, reproductive energy -- and thus less likely to fertilize an egg. So shortly after opening the bank, Graham had to seek out as donors younger, high-IQ folks who weren't Nobelists