Scientist: An asteroid with a diameter of around 500 kilometers is headed in the direction of Earth. We have around 3 months before it arrives.
Senator: What would happen if it hits Earth?
Scientist: It would probably wipe out all humans on Earth. The impact energy would be enough to boil all of Earth's oceans hundreds of times over. For reference, the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs was probably only around 10-15 kilometers in diameter.
Senator: Is it possible to deflect it? What if we nuke it?
Scientist: No. Even if we fired all of the nukes on Earth at it, it wouldn't alter its trajectory enough. We have thoroughly investigated this. We've considered using rockets to push it off course, we've thought about using lasers, we've even thought about wrapping it in reflective foil. We've already done all the calculations. As far as we know, there is absolutely no way to deflect it.
Senator: Will it hit Earth?
Scientist: We don't know for certain. But it's headed in our direction.
Senator: Realistically, if the asteroid was to hit Earth, would any humans survive?
Scientist: In the most likely scenario, the only survivors would be those on the moon base.
The moon base. After decades of painstaking research and development, humanity had finally succeeded in establishing a self-replicating habitat on the moon capable of supporting a population of humans indefinitely.
Senator: How many people can the moon base support?
Scientist: Currently, it can only support a maximum population of 100 people.
Senator: Can we send 100 people to the moon before the asteroid hits Earth?
Scientist: Yes, we can.
Senator: From your perspective as a scientist, are there any considerations for how we should pick people to be sent to the moon base for the purpose of keeping humanity alive?
Scientist: In order to maximize humanity's chances of survival, we should try to preserve as much genetic diversity as possible. In order to do that, we should send 100 young and fertile genetically diverse women along with frozen eggs and sperm from as many genetically diverse people as possible. The women as well as the egg and sperm donors will need to be screened for genetic disorders. The women will be surrogates, and each egg-donor-sperm-donor pairing will be allowed to produce a maximum of only one offspring.
Senator: Are there any other requirements?
Scientist: Well, this should go without saying, but we need people who believe in the mission and are mentally and physically healthy, fit, good at working in a team, and without any physical or mental disabilities. They also need to have no hearing impairments and excellent fine motor skills. Psychological requirements mostly fall into two categories: ability and personality. Ability-wise, we need people who are highly intelligent, rational, scientifically knowledgeable, have a good understanding of engineering, mentally flexible, able to rapidly assimilate new information, and are good at risk management and decisionmaking under stress. We will need scientists, engineers, programmers, technicians, medics, and many different specialists including roboticists, botanists, metallurgists, geologists, and materials scientists. They need to have strong communication skills, analytical skills, memory, spatial ability, and powers of focus. Personality-wise, we need people who are gregarious, emotionally mature, empathic, non-aggressive, emotionally stable, easygoing, thick-skinned, not easily offended, welcoming of criticism...
The scientist went on and on and rattled off like two dozen more requirements.
Senator: That's quite the list of requirements. How many people would be able to meet them?
Scientist: Probably less than 0.5% of the population.
Senator: Well, that's not going to be very popular, but we'll see what we can do.
...
News spread and soon the entire world knew about the approaching asteroid, the plan to send a genetically diverse group of young fertile women along with a genetically diverse collection of frozen eggs and sperm samples, as well as the stringent selection criteria.
Protests soon erupted. A reporter was covering one of the protests. A scientist was there to respond to the protesters' concerns.
Reporter: Could you please tell us why you're protesting today?
Protester A: I'm protesting because I'm against race mixing. The plan calls for our women to be impregnated with the sperm of other races! That's outrageous. I won't stand for it.
Scientist: Genetic diversity is necessary in order to maximize humanity's chances of survival.
Protester B: I'm protesting because the use of genetic screening and in-vitro fertilization is morally wrong - it's humans trying to play God. It's an act of hubris.
Scientist: Genetic screening is necessary in order to maximize humanity's chances of survival.
Protester C: I'm protesting because I think it's unfair that only women get to live while all the men will die. Men's lives matter too! We also deserve to live!
Scientist: Men are not needed because they cannot bear children.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Protester D: I'm protesting because according to the plan, women will be used as baby factories! They will be forced to carry other people's children! That's a violation of women's rights! Women should have the right to choose whose children they bear!
Scientist: No, because that would reduce genetic diversity.
Protester E: I'm protesting because I'm against eugenics. Genetic screening means that people with genetic disorders are going to be denied the chance to reproduce. That's eugenics and eugenics is evil!
Scientist: Genetic screening is necessary in order to maximize humanity's chances of survival.
Protester F: My degree was in critical race theory and women's studies. Because of this, I'm not eligible to be saved. That's not fair. Just because I don't have a STEM degree, it doesn't mean that I'm a worthless person! This is clearly discrimination against humanities graduates! My life has value too! I should also have a chance to live!
Scientist: A STEM background is needed for this mission.
Protester G: I have a PhD in astrophysics and an IQ of 146. But I'm physically clumsy due to my Asperger's, and that disqualifies me from the moon mission. That's not fair. My clumsiness is not my fault. I didn't choose to be born with Asperger's. My life has value too.
Scientist: Fine motor skills are needed for this mission.
Protester H: My family was too poor to send me to university. That makes me ineligible for the moon mission. That's not fair. It's classist and discriminates against poor people. Just because I was too poor to afford a university education doesn't mean that I shouldn't be allowed to live. I've worked just as hard as anyone else in this country. The constitution says that every man should have equal right to life and happiness. Well now it seems only people with a STEM degree have a right to life and happiness. That's not fair! Everyone should be given a chance to be saved! There should be a random lottery so that everyone has a fair chance.
Scientist: A STEM backgr-
Protester I: I agree! Requiring a master's degree is such an unfair requirement. It's clearly just credentialism and elitism.
Scientist: No, I-
Protester J: It's all because the rich people don't care about us poor folks and want us all to die. They want to kill off those who couldn't afford fancy degrees. The elites only care about themselves. They don't want us to live.
Scientist: N-
Protester K: The scientists are in on it! They're part of the elites! They want us to die!
The scientist finally gave up and left the scene.
...
Protests rapidly spread across the globe. At first thousands and then millions took part in the protests. Riots became increasingly violent.
"Fairness and equality! Fairness and equality!" the rioters shouted in unison.
Senator: What's going on outside?
Head of intelligence: Mass riots. The police have reported that they are increasingly short of manpower and unlikely to be able to recruit enough new personnel to handle riots for the foreseeable future. We're going to have to bring in the military.
Senator: No, we're not doing that. What do the protesters want?
Head of intelligence: Most rioters are demanding a random lottery system for deciding who gets chosen for the moon mission.
Scientist: That's absurd! Most of the population don't even meet the basic requirements! We would end up with a bunch of unqualified people, most of whom would be too young or old and mentally and physically incapable of performing the tasks required of an astronaut! Humanity would be doomed before we even got off the ground!
Senator: We should ask the people if that's what they really want.
...
The government decided to hold a referendum on the astronaut selection process. Every citizen was given a ballot paper on which it was printed:
"How should astronauts be chosen for the moon mission?
[ ] By a merit-based selection process including physical and psychometric tests
[ ] By a completely random lottery where every citizen has equal probability of being selected"
Every citizen was required to vote, and most did. 44.1% voted for the random lottery while 44.0% of the citizens voted for merit-based selection. The rest of the citizens didn't vote.
Senator: The people have spoken. We will go with the random lottery system.
Scientist: This is ridiculous! The polls were fluctuating by more than 2% day-to-day! If this referendum had taken place on a different day the result could easily have been different! And besides, most people don't know anything about science! They shouldn't be given the power to make such decisions! We should hold a second referendum.
Senator: No. The people have made their decision and we will carry them out because that's our job and that's that. There will be no second referendum.
Scientist: This is madness!
Senator: No, this is democracy.
Scientist: We were founded as a republic, not a democracy. The founding fathers were explicitly against democracy, which they equated with mob rule.
Senator: That was 300 years ago. Times have changed.
...
The plan to use female astronauts as surrogates was dropped after mass public protests. Astronauts now had total freedom to choose whether or not to have kids and who with.
The scientist went home and cried to his wife.
Scientist: It's terrible! Humanity is doomed!
Wife: Honey, what's the matter?
Scientist: Have you seen the people who were chosen to be astronauts? None of them are qualified! Out of the 100 people chosen, 50 of them are above the age of 50. And 8 of them are below the age of 8. So right off the bat we have that most of the females are not of childbearing age. And the kids need carers. So do the elderly. So do the mentally disabled, of whom there are 6. And then we have that 50 out of the 100 are obese, of whom 20 are morbidly obese.
Wife: Okay.
Scientist: Out of the 100 people, 33 of them have a criminal record, 4 of them have at least one violent conviction, 4 have paranoid personality disorder, and 4 have antisocial personality disorder. Oh and 2 of them are psychopaths.
Wife: That doesn't sound so bad.
Scientist: I haven't even gotten to the good part yet. Out of the 100 people, we have only 1 programmer, 1 medic, 1 nurse, 1 electrician, and 1 builder. We have 1 person with a physics degree and 1 person with a math degree and that's it. We have no physicists, no mathematicians, no engineers, no chemists, no biologists, no technicians, no metallurgists, no roboticists, no botanists, no materials scientists, and no geologists. We have 1 care worker who will have their hands full with the 30 or so people who will need a carer. It's doomed.
Wife: Well...you can teach them the necessary knowledge and skills, can't you?
Scientist: I can teach them some rudimentary knowledge, yes, but not the habits of mind that are required of an astronaut. At least, not in 3 months. There's a reason an engineering degree takes 4 years you know! You don't just learn a bunch of facts, you also learn how to think, how to analyze and approach problems. At least, you're supposed to...not everyone does, which is another problem. Not everyone is cut out for engineering.
...
The asteroid ended up missing the Earth after all, and the dreaded apocalypse didn't happen. Doomsday cultists were disappointed, but most people rejoiced.
Scientist: Phew. What a relief. Humanity is saved. The moon mission would have been a total disaster.
Wife: Yeah. Why are some people so obsessed with fairness and equality? Even prioritizing it over humanity's survival.
Scientist: The desire for fairness and equality, otherwise known as envy and jealousy, is a primitive impulse that has existed long before humans came into being. You can observe it in monkeys and chimps. While some humans have learned to ignore it, others have allowed themselves to be controlled by it, much like how the lower animals are controlled by their impulses.
Wife: How sad that even when the survival of humanity is at stake, some people are still incapable of ignoring their emotions and working together for the greater good.