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Gene therapy restores hearing to children with inherited deafness
101–110 of 231 posts
Re: Gene therapy restores hearing to children with inherited deafness
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
If dolphins could communicate with us they would surely tell how much easier it is when you have ultrasonic hearing. All humans are therefore disabled and in need of fixing. Or maybe not, if dolphins turn to be wiser than an average human.
If all humans could echo-locate except a subset who couldn't, I would say that group is at a small disadvantage, yes, because the set of things the main group can do is 'objectively' greater. I don't know how relevant it would be for us especially in the daytime, but hey.
I agree. However, whether all kids should receive gene therapy to develop the echo-location once the science allows for that is a more nuanced question.
Re: Gene therapy restores hearing to children with inherited deafness
#103> Two of the children even gained an ability to appreciate music.
Interesting: Does this mean that the other 3 children are still kind of indifferent to Music and presumably other kinds of sounds?
Re: Gene therapy restores hearing to children with inherited deafness
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well thank you, but the question is why one needs "fixing" and the other doesn't. Parent comment made an argument that being gay is like being left-handed so it doesn't need "fixing". That's fine with me, but I don't see how the same logic doesn't apply to deafness. Many deaf people enjoy their life as it is and don't welcome your attempts to "fix" them.
I didn’t attempt to “fix” anyone. Everyone has to do that themselves. What about the deaf people that don’t enjoy their life as it is and do welcome the opportunity to hear?
> What about the deaf people that don’t enjoy their life as it is and do welcome the opportunity to hear?
I would be happy if they had such an opportunity.
The question, once again, was different: should the hereditary deafness be eradicated in childhood by gene therapy once advances of medicine allow that?
Re: Gene therapy restores hearing to children with inherited deafness
#105This stuff seems miraculous. > "Through minimally invasive surgery, Shu injected adeno-associated virus (AAV) engineered to carry and deliver functioning copies of the human OTOF transgene, into the children’s inner ears. " Can't read that and not get curious, excited, for the future. Congratulations to all those involved in the research and thanks to all who contributed to it - including all taxpayers if public fund…
I can’t wait for a geneCAD where we for example, design wings for a human body and then it works out the rest and generates a CRISPR based AAV that you can inject yourself with. True race and sex changes too. Hopefully in the next 50 years but that’s wishful thinking.
Dan Simmons, Hyperion Cantos. “Biosculpting”
Re: Gene therapy restores hearing to children with inherited deafness
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can’t wait for a geneCAD where we for example, design wings for a human body and then it works out the rest and generates a CRISPR based AAV that you can inject yourself with. True race and sex changes too. Hopefully in the next 50 years but that’s wishful thinking.
Taking it seriously for a moment, that still seems outlandish even in a sci-fi scenario. The amount of changes that would be necessary to the body for a human to achieve autonomous powered flight would be substantial. Given our overall density, we would need enormous wings and musculature. Consider that the heaviest flying birds alive today weigh maybe 40lbs and have a wingspan of 8ft or so. If we naively extrapolate…
A futurist I knew of long ago pointed out that the Moon’s gravity is light enough that the human skeleton could achieve sufficient lift without sustaining damage in the process.
True, you might have to be a junior Olympian to do it, but it’s possible.
On earth your pectorals would tear off of your sternum long before you achieved takeoff.
Re: Gene therapy restores hearing to children with inherited deafness
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
What makes you think that deafness is not the same as being left-handed? I mean objectively, not based on the current cultural norms which will be very different 50 years from now.
“Objectively,” left-handed versus right-handed changes nothing about a person’s capabilities in the world, whereas being deaf does. Cultural norms is an interesting comparison. Despite there being no actual difference in capacity, cultural views forced many left-handed people to be right-handed, making those people miserable in the process for no good reason.
> “Objectively,” left-handed versus right-handed changes nothing about a person’s capabilities in the world,
As a leftie, this is only true in the current world — I live in a culture with a left-to-right writing system, and yet technology means I don't ever need to use a fountain or quill pen.
I did have one teacher who insisted on "no biro" when I was a kid, but they were also my first introduction to "not everyone is actually nice".
Re: Gene therapy restores hearing to children with inherited deafness
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can do both things at the same time.
That's true if we assume unlimited resources and equal awareness/perceived social value of the two applications. But I think the former doesn't hold, and the latter is greatly influenced by sites like HN, where I'm disappointed to consistently (if not exclusively) see breathless proposals for ways to design shinier hubcaps whenever some promising new technology appears. Yes, they can and likely will both happen to so…
Economies of scale. Shiny hubcap manufacturers will very generously subsidise the R&D for other, more worthy users of a technology. They aren't competitive or independent, they're synergistic. The billions of dollars we "wasted" on making video games look more realistic gave us a revolution in high-performance computing that nobody could have created intentionally.
Re: Gene therapy restores hearing to children with inherited deafness
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
“Objectively,” left-handed versus right-handed changes nothing about a person’s capabilities in the world, whereas being deaf does. Cultural norms is an interesting comparison. Despite there being no actual difference in capacity, cultural views forced many left-handed people to be right-handed, making those people miserable in the process for no good reason.
You can't procreate, that sounds like a pretty big difference in capacity?
Gay people can obviously procreate, nothing about your body stops functioning when you are gay.
What you mean is that they don't have sexual attraction towards people of an opposite gender, where if they had a relationship with them, that relationship would encourage procreation.
To me that just doesn't seem like a "difference in capacity".
I personally don't want children, and will probably seek out a partner who likewise does not want children. If I encounter somebody who wants lots of children, I will see that we have different life goals, and I probably won't be very keen on being in a relationship with them. Do you consider me "damaged" or of "diminished capacity" because of it?
Re: Gene therapy restores hearing to children with inherited deafness
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Taking it seriously for a moment, that still seems outlandish even in a sci-fi scenario. The amount of changes that would be necessary to the body for a human to achieve autonomous powered flight would be substantial. Given our overall density, we would need enormous wings and musculature. Consider that the heaviest flying birds alive today weigh maybe 40lbs and have a wingspan of 8ft or so. If we naively extrapolate…
Your point seems to be that massive changes are required to achieve wings. I’m saying that’s not impossible and an acceptable modification to whoever wants to do this to themselves. As long as you can maintain the brain as is, I don’t see there being a problem with radically modifying the rest of the body. Argentavis magnificens had a wingspan of around 24ft and weighed around 72 kgs or a 160lbs which is close to wha…
> As long as you can maintain the brain as is,
That’s the question, can a human sized body that can fly additionally support a human sized brain? I suspect you would have to spend nearly every waking minute eating to support both. Or at least a substantial portion of your day. No time for hacking, gotta eat.
You’ll probably have to pay full up front for this, as no one will finance you since you’ll be too busy foraging for sugary fruit or carrying livestock off to your eyrie to work a job to pay it back.
Finally, this raises another question I won’t even attempt to answer: is it even possible for you to still be “you” in another body? How responsible is your body, beyond just your brain, responsible for making you who you are?