Let’s say a previously unstudied and geographically isolated group of people is discovered in the 1930s. They’re near-universally peak human athleticism-wise (their average forty year-old would set Olympic records, let’s say) and highly intelligent. Also, the group exhibits unique skin/hair coloration and facial features to be marked as a distinct race that, once seen, is somehow the closest to near-universal objective beauty/handsomeness that people around the globe could agree on. The specifics don’t matter. Obviously they’re not day-glo or anything, but they’re a distinct and newly discovered peoples. Oh, and they age ridiculously well - active and fit right to until their hundreds, and disease and disabilities are practically unknown within their race. So as super as possible without actual comic book powers.
Since they have all these advantages, the only reason they hadn’t had an empire we’d heard of previously, is some deep-seated cultural tradition of isolationism and pacifism - one that would not be present in a master race child raised outside of its culture. Also their culture and tech isn’t stone age. Despite isolation, owing to their intelligence, they’re on par or better with the first world.
How does the world change? Would people eventually seek and prize interracial marriages with this race - hoping for genetically superior children? Would there instead be widespread racism towards them born out of jealousy? Would governments attempt to draft mercenary super soldiers from their ranks (that pacifism will be a problem with the grown ones)?
I think a lot of it would depend on their relationship with the outside world. If they hung out on their tiny island, like some sort of super-duper Sentinelese, I don’t think people would really care.
If they came out and got all sanctimonious and started saying crap like “300 generations of eugenic inbreeding made us what we are, and we recommend you do it too.” then there might be some animosity.
I think most likely would be that some of them would branch out and live among us, if only to learn more about us, and the rest of them would have a massive problem keeping the hippies and knuckleheaded new-agey types from overwhelming their idyllic little island.
I expect that such a master race would be very useful for genetic and health research. By seeing how they differ, we’d have some ideas about where to focus future research, or perhaps may learn more about how the expression of certain genes translates into real-world outcomes.
Other than that… probably not that much of an issue, really. The military isn’t desperately in need of super soldiers when modern technology is such an equalizer. Most people select their mates for a variety of traits, and attractiveness and genetics are only part of it. Most international issues are based on fear or money, and you’ve described a group that are about as non-threatening as possible. That leaves money as a motivation and a small island surely has lots of things they want to trade for.
Well, we’d go to their locale and open up a McDonalds, with a first-week promotion of a free Playstation to anyone that comes in - within a year, they’d be “normal.”
The egalitarian nitwits among us would begin a series of lectures arguing that the differences were environmental and not genetic, and that there was no basis for a conclusion that the master race was genetically superior until the function of every single gene was identified, and every single environmental variable was evaluated in a double-blind study. “Science is hard,” they’d say; trying to obfuscate the obvious.
Many women would attempt garnering some of the gene pool for their own offspring, via direct or artificial insemination.
Otherwise the world would go on without much of a hiccup, and it’s likely most people wouldn’t give a rat’s patoot, anymore than we worry about wealthier or more beautiful folks.
Populations exist today that have as broad differences as your putative “master race,” and pretty much the same story exists…
Yep. If we didn’t kill them outright we’d just worry them to death. At least a dozen nations would be keeping an eye on them, ready to push the button at the first sign of trouble. The various intelligence services from those nations would have networks tracking their every move and competing for their their allegiance. If it looked like they might be helping Iran for example, we’d have to at least drone strike them.
They sound stuck up and they want our womens, so nobody will care when we nuke 'em.
Note that many of their positive traits would quickly become viewed as negative.
E.g., living healthy for a long time would be perceived as unnatural, not part of God’s plan, disruptive to society, etc.
We already are developing quite a strong anti-intelligence bias in the US, this would just push it along even faster.
And once these “sub-humans” are properly categorized, time for the cattle cars and ovens.
Note that they would have to at least a couple sigmas different from the mean in several different categories. Being only one sigma higher in, say, just IQ means nothing. If, for example, 40% of the regular folk are as smart as 60% of the smart folk, there is no reason to single any group out one way or the other.
