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Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil

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Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil

#101

Post by StavrosK »

devoply wrote: post #83
rebuilder wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More generally, and IMO the most important point: an assumption was made that the modified animals would not be able to reproduce. This turns out not to be the case, and therefore the genetic modifications made are now in the wild. In this case, as far as I can tell, there's little cause for alarm. But with a different alteration, things might be worse, and one wonders about the robustness of the decision making proc…

Did no one watch Jurassic Park? You can't put genetic alterations in the environment and expect them not to propagate. The idea that this is possible has been proven multiple times to be utterly and completely false. No matter what the level of care or control. You put it out there, and there is any possibility for it to proliferate... it will proliferate. Period. People don't learn they still think they are in contr…

If you're citing Jurassic Park as your source, I'm not sure how persuasive the argument is.

Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil

#103

Post by human20190310 »

rebuilder wrote: post #61
noname120 wrote: post #19

The linked article (edit: it has been changed) is rather confusing so I'd like to highlight the fact that the underlying study[1] hints at two very specific observations: 1) The effectiveness started to decrease after 18 months: the population of Ae. aegypti progressively returned back to its normal levels—and this despite the continued release every week of 450 thousand males of the modified strain. 2) Some hybrid o…

More generally, and IMO the most important point: an assumption was made that the modified animals would not be able to reproduce. This turns out not to be the case, and therefore the genetic modifications made are now in the wild. In this case, as far as I can tell, there's little cause for alarm. But with a different alteration, things might be worse, and one wonders about the robustness of the decision making proc…

The irony is that after building in a failsafe to mitigate the consequences of any surprise, the surprise is that the failsafe didn't work.

Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil

#104

Post by devoply »

cwp wrote: post #100
devoply wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did no one watch Jurassic Park? You can't put genetic alterations in the environment and expect them not to propagate. The idea that this is possible has been proven multiple times to be utterly and completely false. No matter what the level of care or control. You put it out there, and there is any possibility for it to proliferate... it will proliferate. Period. People don't learn they still think they are in contr…

The only lessons to be learned from Jurassic Park are a) Michael Crichton is a better writer than people think b) Wow, this CGI thing is going to be huge! It's fiction. It did well because it tapped into the zeitgeist and gave form to people's fears. It is not evidence that those fears are justified.

Damn I thought it was a documentary.

Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil

#106

Post by maxerickson »

koboll wrote: post #96
maxerickson wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The two other species are the species the released mosquitoes were hybridized from. They didn't move in, they were brought in as part of the experiment.

The lesson here is expect failure and don't do something stupid like introduce a nonnative mosquito species, even if you're sure they won't be able to breed. Because who knows, you could be wrong.

Species is the wrong word, the introduced mosquitoes were the same species, just from different populations.

Using one definition of species, the introduced mosquitoes wouldn't have been able to breed with the native population if they were a separate species.

Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil

#107

Post by tyri_kai_psomi »

StavrosK wrote: post #101
devoply wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did no one watch Jurassic Park? You can't put genetic alterations in the environment and expect them not to propagate. The idea that this is possible has been proven multiple times to be utterly and completely false. No matter what the level of care or control. You put it out there, and there is any possibility for it to proliferate... it will proliferate. Period. People don't learn they still think they are in contr…

If you're citing Jurassic Park as your source, I'm not sure how persuasive the argument is.

The thing about human thought is it isn't as far fetched and disconnected from reality as we may first believe, even in the realm of fiction. The means in which the fiction is achieved can sometimes be practical methods we have available to us today! Outside some hallucinogenic escapades, most scenarios any one individual can imagine eventually faces an opportunity to become a reality, at least fiction from the past has shown us numerous examples where this is the case.

The Jetsons introduced us to video phone calls in 1962, which people thought were so farfetched and deemed ridiculous. We now have Facetime, Facebook Portal, et all.

Star Trek introduced us to the universal translator. We now have Google Translate and Google Assistant Interpreter Mode, and universal translators as consumer products.

Marty McFly wore smart glasses and Doc wore a smart watch. We now have Smart Watches and Google Glass.

In 1977 Dr Who had a robotic dog, K9, who beat its master in chess, and 20 years later computers can beat the world's best chess grandmasters with ease.

I could think of some more examples, but you get the picture.

Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil

#108

Post by kortilla »

devoply wrote: post #83
rebuilder wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More generally, and IMO the most important point: an assumption was made that the modified animals would not be able to reproduce. This turns out not to be the case, and therefore the genetic modifications made are now in the wild. In this case, as far as I can tell, there's little cause for alarm. But with a different alteration, things might be worse, and one wonders about the robustness of the decision making proc…

Did no one watch Jurassic Park? You can't put genetic alterations in the environment and expect them not to propagate. The idea that this is possible has been proven multiple times to be utterly and completely false. No matter what the level of care or control. You put it out there, and there is any possibility for it to proliferate... it will proliferate. Period. People don't learn they still think they are in contr…

Jurassic Park was fiction. Behaviors of genetics can’t be gleaned from something made-up. Especially hard rules about what is possible or impossible.

Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil

#109

Post by cgriswald »

tyri_kai_psomi wrote: post #107
StavrosK wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're citing Jurassic Park as your source, I'm not sure how persuasive the argument is.

The thing about human thought is it isn't as far fetched and disconnected from reality as we may first believe, even in the realm of fiction. The means in which the fiction is achieved can sometimes be practical methods we have available to us today! Outside some hallucinogenic escapades, most scenarios any one individual can imagine eventually faces an opportunity to become a reality, at least fiction from the past…

Since it’s Star Trek, I feel the need to be pedantic. The universal translator can translate languages it has never heard before, on the fly, to English and vice Versa. There are a few episodes, (*e.g. “Darmok” TNG) featuring failures of the universal translator. We have nothing remotely close to a universal translator.

To your point, however, those are examples of fiction inspired successes, not cautionary tales that sadly came to pass.

Re: Genetically modified mosquitoes breed in Brazil

#110

Post by kortilla »

tyri_kai_psomi wrote: post #107
StavrosK wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're citing Jurassic Park as your source, I'm not sure how persuasive the argument is.

The thing about human thought is it isn't as far fetched and disconnected from reality as we may first believe, even in the realm of fiction. The means in which the fiction is achieved can sometimes be practical methods we have available to us today! Outside some hallucinogenic escapades, most scenarios any one individual can imagine eventually faces an opportunity to become a reality, at least fiction from the past…

Those are tech predictions. Not unfounded “rules of nature”.
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