This may seem like a controversial opinion, but I think that it's a good development. Some people have lost the "genetic lottery" in ways that make them dependent on medication. And for some, it may block career options, such as color vision deficiencies. We should embrace it, instead of painting dystopian scenarios. At least, we shouldn't stop people from fixing problems that they were unfairly born with.
Disagree. The assumption is that we can engineer better than natural selection. The weeds in my yard prove that natural selection always wins
Human genetic engineering is coming
81–90 of 91 posts
Re: Human genetic engineering is coming
#82This may seem like a controversial opinion, but I think that it's a good development. Some people have lost the "genetic lottery" in ways that make them dependent on medication. And for some, it may block career options, such as color vision deficiencies. We should embrace it, instead of painting dystopian scenarios. At least, we shouldn't stop people from fixing problems that they were unfairly born with.
Disagree. The assumption is that we can engineer better than natural selection. The weeds in my yard prove that natural selection always wins
Re: Human genetic engineering is coming
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
An epigenetic alteration is a multiplier on the expression of a gene. it can either inhibit its expression or increase its expression, in a continuum like manner, and remarkably, in a tissue/cell specific manner. A complete inhibition is akin to a gene removal, behaviourally speaking and indeed there can be many synergies between multiples altered genes expressions. The effects of an epigenetic alteration usually las…
> just so you know thymalin rejuvenate the thymus and increase lymphocite T naive cells production by up to 680% which totally fix immunodepression in the edlerdly and e.g. fix covid since day 1 (would have avoided 15 million deaths were people litterate) or reduce all cause mortality in humans by 410% when coadministarted with epitalon So where is the catch? Why more people are not talking about it and money is not…
Re: Human genetic engineering is coming
#84This may seem like a controversial opinion, but I think that it's a good development. Some people have lost the "genetic lottery" in ways that make them dependent on medication. And for some, it may block career options, such as color vision deficiencies. We should embrace it, instead of painting dystopian scenarios. At least, we shouldn't stop people from fixing problems that they were unfairly born with.
My first concern is that with our current economic system, especially the lack of free health care in the US, this would be basically rolled out to rich people first, so for about 50 years or so rich people would not only be healthier from having access to more and better resources but also they would be now evolving in a healthier direction too. This itself is not a huge problem, but inequality becoming a greater inequality is something to think about and hopefully set it up such that it can be somewhat mitigated or avoided.
My second concern is again with out current economic model,(later after years of it being affordable only to the rich) we would end up rolling it out as for lack of a better term "manufacturing batches" like people would go to a store and choose a popular preset of options from what's available, and that preset would then become more economical and therefor commonplace, which in a lot of ways is like turning our species into a mono-gene-pool, with all the same dangers that come from relying on a single mono-crop (Great example is the potato famine of Ireland vs the Incas who also heavily relied on potatoes but had much more variety like over 300 kinds of potato, while Ireland relied on 1). Biggest concern with this, especially after a pandemic is that if a certain strain of virus hit's just right, and everyone is more the same than they used to be, it could be even more catastrophic than predicted. If we did roll it out in batches (highly likely) we will have entire generations and nations start to look all the same, certain groups wouldn't participate (the very poor, certain religious organizations) and they would likely feel significant persecution (much as poor kids are teased at school today) or at the very least be in-congruent with the greater parts of society, many would become second class citizens (much how Gattica predicted), also those laggards would become holdouts for known genetic diseases and so those who are engineered would rightfully avoid marriage/breeding with them, thus further solidifying the persecution and possibly diverging humanity's evolution.
Both of my concerns are not enough reason to not push forward, but they bring more concerns of distribution, pricing and variation, not of the technology itself. More or less I think we need to push forward scientifically, but we need to also make progress as a society too or else there will arise other problems that come with progress.
Re: Human genetic engineering is coming
#85Re: Human genetic engineering is coming
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Intelligence really doesn’t seem like the solution to any of our big problems. I’ve heard this argument before (and probably made this argument at some point too), and it seems to boil down to thinking that people would agree with me if they would just be a bit smarter and/or more informed. But I don’t think this is true at all. If it was then smart people would agree, but they don’t. There is another line of thinkin…
>Intelligence really doesn’t seem like the solution to any of our big problems. Simple example: how many people in the USA understand that inflation / money printing / quantitative easing is a tax and should be avoided at the level it is used to finance the spending? Not many, for sure. Btw intelligence is not only sheer analytical power, it is also emotional control, selintrospection, focus skill, collaboration and…
Re: Human genetic engineering is coming
#87This may seem like a controversial opinion, but I think that it's a good development. Some people have lost the "genetic lottery" in ways that make them dependent on medication. And for some, it may block career options, such as color vision deficiencies. We should embrace it, instead of painting dystopian scenarios. At least, we shouldn't stop people from fixing problems that they were unfairly born with.
The Revolutionary Phenotype: The amazing story of how life begins and how it ends
Re: Human genetic engineering is coming
#88Re: Human genetic engineering is coming
#89Re: Human genetic engineering is coming
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nowhere! Why draw the line right beneath yourself, we could all be better and it sucks that we aren't
For too long, the children of the rich have been denied their rightful genetic advantages. We need a ruling class we can really worship with a straight face.