Galton's Vision Realized: Eugenics Evolved in the Abundance Economy

This paper examines Francis Galton’s foundational contributions to eugenics through the prism of the abundance economy, as articulated in our Homo Novus series. Drawing on Galton’s Hereditary Genius (1869) and Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development (1883), we argue that his theories emerged from a scarcity-driven worldview, where resource constraints amplified natural inequalities and necessitated interventions to “improve the human stock.” In contrast, the post-scarcity paradigm—powered by artificial general intelligence (AGI/ASI), advanced robotics, fusion energy augmented by Dyson swarms, and reusable rocketry like Starship—transforms eugenics into a voluntary, inclusive pursuit of human enhancement. This “new eugenics” for Homo Novus eschews coercion and elitism, favoring equitable access to genetic engineering, CRISPR-based modifications, AI-assisted reproduction, and adaptations for extraterrestrial environments. By resolving scarcity’s antagonisms, abundance evolves Galton’s insights into an ethical framework for universal flourishing, echoing themes from our prior explorations of the current geopolitical and philosophical situation at the beginning of humanity’s next evolution into Homo Novus: Ad Astra (Waford 2026a), Skinner (Waford 2025), Marx (Waford 2026c), Hegel (Waford 2026d), existentialism (Waford 2026e), and Darwin (Waford 2026b). All of Galton’s works are also available online (Galton 2026).