Not my area of expertise at all, but mosquitoes seem unique in nature in that they can pick up diseases from one animal and spread them to another by direct blood transfusion. I've long wondered if this might confer some kind of advantage to the animals being bit, perhaps along the lines of how vaccines work.
CRISPR machines that can wipe out entire species
61–70 of 122 posts
Re: CRISPR machines that can wipe out entire species
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's just say it's been pretty reliably proved over time.
Wiping out smallpox seems to have no negative side effects. In any case, side effects that might exist are hugely less problematic than millions of human deaths!
One could argue that the rise of people arguing against vaccination of children is directly related to those people not having direct experience with the horrific realities of the diseases in question.
That aside, millions of human deaths (annually or in total) is a horrific tragedy, but if we, say, managed to render a large area of land uninhabitable through ecological collapse for a generation or more, it might be far worse, both in some imaginary absolute scale, and for the people directly displaced.
Re: CRISPR machines that can wipe out entire species
#63ITT: people who live in countries that aren’t ravaged by malaria share their vague feelings of doubt about whether or not getting rid of mosquitos is a good idea
Classical ad hominem argument . Attack the people who make the immoral choice of thinking about the fact instead of blindly going forward and doing it, regardless of the cost. Perhaps it is worth to consider carefully before eradicating a species by any means? And perhaps it is worth to consider using a domain of technology - biotechnology - we have yet to understand better? Every tool comes with it's price, and so d…
> Unless... unless, of course, we are happy with the import of rabbits et al to Australia.
Odd that you lead with the dismissal of one logical fallacy and then in the short space of this comment fall into the trap of using another one yourself.
Re: CRISPR machines that can wipe out entire species
#64Frightening question: what if this technology could be targeted not at species, but at races?
There is no biological basis for the word race.
I find this meme annoying because it so often misses the point (as I'd argue it does in this particular discussion).
Yes, races are largely a social concept. However, once society has defined races based on whatever phenotypes that are in fashion at the time, it turns out that yes, there is a biological and genetic basis for those phenotypes. It's conceivable that this biological basis could be targeted by some gene-based technology. Probably not very accurately, but based on past observations I'd say that racist mass murderers are not particularly likely to care about such subtleties. And that's what matters for the GP's point.
Re: CRISPR machines that can wipe out entire species
#65Frightening question: what if this technology could be targeted not at species, but at races?
It probably already can. I'm not an expert, but from what I understand CRISPR targets specific DNA sequences. Race can be determined by DNA testing, therefore I think (again, I'm not an expert) that there would be certain sequences that are specific to a race. Now CRISPR alters the specific sequence that it targets. In fact, CRISPR only cuts the DNA at that sequence, other proteins must be employed to change and then…
Interesting thought - CRISPR could be used to create a baby of an entirely different "race" to its parents just by changing these DNA markers.
Re: CRISPR machines that can wipe out entire species
#66Not my area of expertise at all, but mosquitoes seem unique in nature in that they can pick up diseases from one animal and spread them to another by direct blood transfusion. I've long wondered if this might confer some kind of advantage to the animals being bit, perhaps along the lines of how vaccines work.
Possibly also leeches - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8073013
"many fish leeches directly transmit several blood parasites" "Consequently, the leech is a potential vector of many pathogens, especially in regions with an endemic spread of human and/or animal pathogens."
Re: CRISPR machines that can wipe out entire species
#67Frightening question: what if this technology could be targeted not at species, but at races?
Frightening why? The only way this system can "target" race is to make certain skin colors and such superdominant. That's a dumb effect but not really harmful to anyone.
I assume your worry is that it might selectively activate in some race to do a bad thing? But that's not how it works. It always activates, and the only thing keeping it within the mosquito species is that they physically can't breed with anything else. And obviously no such barrier exists with races.
So we could worry about a completely different and theoretical technology, but not so much this one.
Re: CRISPR machines that can wipe out entire species
#68It's horrible that people are dying because of malaria. I'm a bit divided on this approach though, I don't know enough about the topic at hand to suggest a different approach, but let me try. Would it be feasible to suggest using CRISP to create another adaptation to the gene, one that preserves the mosquitoes but makes them unable to transfer the disease to humans? Eliminating a species because we don't like it remi…
It is indeed horrible, and it is fantastic that so many resources are dedicated to find a solution to this travesty!
Eliminating entire species deliberately, on the other hand, isn't really better. Yes, there is the us vs. them dilemma, and of course we should favour our own species if there's no other option, but this should be used as a last resort only.
I wonder if there's anyone looking into using similar methods to make humans malaria resistant instead.
Re: CRISPR machines that can wipe out entire species
#69It's horrible that people are dying because of malaria. I'm a bit divided on this approach though, I don't know enough about the topic at hand to suggest a different approach, but let me try. Would it be feasible to suggest using CRISP to create another adaptation to the gene, one that preserves the mosquitoes but makes them unable to transfer the disease to humans? Eliminating a species because we don't like it remi…
Where humans assume another species to be inferior and have less of a right to live a decent life.
How about if you consider things like bacteria? The rabbit-hole of "speciesism" never ends...
Re: CRISPR machines that can wipe out entire species
#70Frightening question: what if this technology could be targeted not at species, but at races?
You mean humans? AFAIK human "races" are largely superficial biologically - there are some correlations, but weaker than the variability between individuals.
By the time DNA wars begin, we will be already very mixed as a planet.