THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN JUN 2 1966

Department of Medical Genetics
Genetics Building
MADISON, WISCONSIN 53706

May 31, 1966

Dr. Joshua Lederberg
Department of Medica! Genetics
Stanford University
Stanford, California

Dear Josh:

| just had the pleasure of reading a copy of your paper "Experimental
Genetics and Human Evolution", lent by Klaus Patau. Do you have more? |
would tike one for myself. Also, if they are still available in quantity,
{ would like another copy of the papers on DENDRAL; actually the primer
would suffice, for | haventt even gotten this far. My copies are in Charlie

Cotterman's hands -- you probably know of his interest in combinatorial
problems,

As for vegetative propagation, who can disagree with its obvious c.
effectiveness? But | am not sure that the social questions are any easier oO
than those with artificial insemination. The danger of exact copies next
generation of today's matinee idols or athletic heroes must be at least as e_

great as that associated with a random half of their genes. On the whole,
though, if one is to defend doing anything at all as regards the genetic
aspects of the future (as opposed to control of the phenotype in other ways)
he surely will defend doing it with a high precision rather than with the
noise that inevitably goes with the Mendelian lottery.

Have you done anything with the Index of opportunity for selection?
| have been thinking more about it and want to examine a bit more the trend,
which must be quite sharp, for the variance in American family size to decrease
in the last decade or two.

| decided to pass up a meeting of the Annual Review of Genetics Advisory
Board meeting in Palo Alto next month. I! thought | might see you briefly,
but it would have been a rush trip and | would rather try sometime later
when | could stay more than a day. | would like to talk with you, but feel
less and less as if | have anything very concrete to contribute to the program
you and Walter are working one

Best regards, as always.

Sincerely,
: 7 “a
CFE ey

_/Sames F. Crow

s/o/44 boat 2 foc brs ( aks + Hy 57 Af=

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