Altruistic Punishment and Genetic Engineering dangers

This FuturePundit post is thought provoking.:

Political scientist James Fowler has created a mathematical model of human behavior that suggests that 'moralists' who voluntarily pay a cost to punish 'misbehavers' can come to dominate a population and ensure cooperation among its members. 'This may help explain mass political behaviors like voting,' Fowler said. 'When individuals say, 'It doesn't really matter if I vote,' others -- programmed genetically or by social norms -- may seek to punish them, even though it means a self-sacrifice.' He believes that humans may have physically or developmentally evolved to altruistic punishment. Previous studies found that 'acting the moralist' stimulates the reward center in the brain. ... The urge to dole out altruistic punishment must have a genetic basis. When germ line genetic engineering (i.e. genetic engineering done on eggs, sperm, and embryos) becomes feasible one of my fears is that key genetically controlled qualities of human nature will be modified by parents and governments in ways that will threaten civilization. Genetic engineering to raise testosterone levels and dominance behavior would have obvious political consequences. But the urge to altruistically punish others is another crucial component of human nature which is going to become more or less strongly felt in future generations as a result of germ line genetic engineering.

Interesting things to think about. It is obvious to most people (Objectivists are the major exception) that traits that are best for an individual are not necessarily best for society. We certainly need our dominant individuals for example, but if we were all highly dominant chaos would result. Someone has to be willing to follow. I am in favor of Genetic Engineering. I don't think that nature is either wise or kind and that meddling with it can be a very good thing. However, that doesn't mean one should throw caution to the wind either. My biggest fear is not that any specific genetic changes will be made or expiramented with, my fear is that a few traits will be seen as universally desirable, and there will be a lack of diversity in the species. There are about a billion ways that such a thing could really hurt us. The best defense against this, in my opinion, is to make sure to keep Government as far away from this as possible. Diverse people will probably choose diverse traits to magnify or remove from their offspring. Governments on the other hand, obsessed with equality and mired in procedure would gravitate toward a single standard.