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Deformities Alarm Scientists Racing to Rewrite Animal DNA

wsj.com

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Re: Deformities Alarm Scientists Racing to Rewrite Animal DNA

#31

Post by dyarosla »

api wrote: post #28
mentos wrote: post #2

I think this could have far greater dangers in the creation of super diseases. How long until China turns this into a weapon by creating a virus with the spread of a common cold and the devastation of Ebola?

Viruses aren't loyal, so nation states would not be likely to unleash such a thing. Its more likely that something like this would be created by a lone nut or a fanatical apocalyptic cult or terror group.

I imagine that viruses could very much be ‘loyal’- if we’re gene editing you could not so theoretically target ethnic-specific genes to attack.

Re: Deformities Alarm Scientists Racing to Rewrite Animal DNA

#32

Post by whatshisface »

dyarosla wrote: post #31
api wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Viruses aren't loyal, so nation states would not be likely to unleash such a thing. Its more likely that something like this would be created by a lone nut or a fanatical apocalyptic cult or terror group.

I imagine that viruses could very much be ‘loyal’- if we’re gene editing you could not so theoretically target ethnic-specific genes to attack.

If viruses can jump between animals and humans, they can jump between ethnicities.

Re: Deformities Alarm Scientists Racing to Rewrite Animal DNA

#33

Post by TeMPOraL »

PavlovsCat wrote: post #11
jf- wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something that would rapidly spread back into their own highly dense population centres and wipe them out? For the most part world leaders aren’t this stupid. Mostly.

World leaders are getting more stupid before our eyes though, it's not like this tech is only available until Christmas or something. Couldn't targetting specific ethnicities seem feasible enough at some point that someone just might try it?

It definitely is considered. I'm reminded of this DEFCON talk[0] by John Sotos, then CMO of Intel, which went into more nasty and targeted applications of bioweapons.

--

[0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKQDSgBHPfY

Re: Deformities Alarm Scientists Racing to Rewrite Animal DNA

#34

Post by api »

dyarosla wrote: post #31
api wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Viruses aren't loyal, so nation states would not be likely to unleash such a thing. Its more likely that something like this would be created by a lone nut or a fanatical apocalyptic cult or terror group.

I imagine that viruses could very much be ‘loyal’- if we’re gene editing you could not so theoretically target ethnic-specific genes to attack.

The virus could very easily evolve to target a broader profile.

Re: Deformities Alarm Scientists Racing to Rewrite Animal DNA

#35

Post by danmaz74 »

mentos wrote: post #2

I think this could have far greater dangers in the creation of super diseases. How long until China turns this into a weapon by creating a virus with the spread of a common cold and the devastation of Ebola?

Is China the new empire of evil? Why would they do such a stupidly suicidal thing?

Re: Deformities Alarm Scientists Racing to Rewrite Animal DNA

#36

Post by awakeasleep »

mentos wrote: post #2

I think this could have far greater dangers in the creation of super diseases. How long until China turns this into a weapon by creating a virus with the spread of a common cold and the devastation of Ebola?

The catch here is that pathogen has been evolving for billions of years, already.

If something like that fit in the constraints of life on earth it'd most likely be here already.

Re: Deformities Alarm Scientists Racing to Rewrite Animal DNA

#37

Post by sleepydog »

Valmar wrote: post #9
nerdponx wrote: post #5

This just in: fucking with stuff we don't fully understand has negative consequences we don't fully understand. I'm grateful this is happening, otherwise our hubris might get too out if hand.

Indeed. DNA is the most fucking complex and complicated programming language. We have barely any understanding of how the whole thing hangs together, let alone how it's parsed and written, and how it all translates from stem cells to whole organs, an immune system, the complex interrelation between organs, the nervous system, the whole gamut. And that's not even touching on the nature of mind and consciousness in rel…

It's like if you had a version of C that replaced all compilation errors with undefined behavior.

Re: Deformities Alarm Scientists Racing to Rewrite Animal DNA

#39

Post by marktangotango »

Valmar wrote: post #9
nerdponx wrote: post #5

This just in: fucking with stuff we don't fully understand has negative consequences we don't fully understand. I'm grateful this is happening, otherwise our hubris might get too out if hand.

Indeed. DNA is the most fucking complex and complicated programming language. We have barely any understanding of how the whole thing hangs together, let alone how it's parsed and written, and how it all translates from stem cells to whole organs, an immune system, the complex interrelation between organs, the nervous system, the whole gamut. And that's not even touching on the nature of mind and consciousness in rel…

The equivocation to programming language is misleading, it implies the “language” is context free or context sensitive when dna is probably on the order of natural language complexity (posits I).
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