this worry is not a fringe concern: https://www.edge.org/response-detail/26714
Your link proposes that we will be able to manage mutations using genetic engineering. Parents could choose to have children created from their healthiest genes, rather than leaving children to be shotgunned with a random and increasing fraction of damaged genes. Genetic repair would replace the ancient cruelty of natural selection, which only fights entropy by tormenting organisms because of their genes. The concern…
> natural selection, which only fights entropy by tormenting organisms because of their genes
Now that's a limited view of the process that created life. Natural evolution also pays back by upgrading the gene pool.
Gene editing is probably the only way humans can colonize space. By adapting people to different gravities, air chemistry and pressure, radiation, etc., the need for life support equipment can be significantly reduced, and the quality of life of the colonists can be improved.
Why would you live on a planet with different gravity, atmosphere, etc when you can have a nice orbiting habitat adapted to human needs?
what you describe just shows that the old business model - pill in exchange for money - starts to show its limitations in the globalized world. Facebook would never get where it is now if it charged $10/year in Africa and $100/year in US. The pharma company who figures out that new business model would become that trillion dollar company.
There is no new business model that will derive a lot more money. There's a finite amount of global income available in a given year and it's not expanding at a rapid clip. The very specific problem is the rest of the world will never pay it, and the US is aiming to stop paying it (exorbitant prices). Nothing is going to change that, it's a fact of life when resources such as income and wealth are inherently limited…
Perhaps I am up too late and don't completely understand where your question is coming from... but there's a lot of hope available in biology because DNA is one of the most successfully widely deployed technologies of the last 4 billion years. It's had hundreds of trillions of years being battletested in production environments. It's cheap to copy, replicate and eventually it will be cheap to modify and write. Literally everyone is (badly?) programmed with DNA-- and CRISPR isn't the last word on genome engineering. There will absolutely be changes that large chunks of the population will demand, far and beyond the demand for vaccines.
And surgery, and injections, and stitching wounds, etc. Obviously it's net harm, not no harm at all.
It's not simply 'net' harm, as we would regard surgeons as breaking this principle, if they were to murder a homeless man and distribute his organs to 5 otherwise terminal patients. Medical ethics is its own field precisely because overeager and overconfident solutions are fraught with problems.
If the principle is understood to be applicable with regard to each individual, that would seem to accord with opposition to organ theft.
While I appreciate the optimism in this sentiment, the similarity to the early atomic age gives me pause. Human beings have shown time and time again that they cannot be absolutely trusted.
The atomic age came without the world or our species ending.
By that token, every single activity of anyone, anywhere, any time has been a success.
The atomic age came without the world or our species ending.
By that token, every single activity of anyone, anywhere, any time has been a success.
Sort of I guess, every activity puts us in a new place. We know we can't stand still. Doesn't mean we can't be careful, but handwringing won't help much.
We could get rid of genetic diseases without editing the genome. Just screen embryos before IVF.
this does not edit embryos, this only select the ones without defect and trash the defective ones. Very different from editing, especially for couple that only get bad embryos, they'd love to "fix" it.
I am so insanely excited for the potential of this technology. There are many ethical questions here, but the potential benefits far outweigh the downsides. In the near future, we can detect and eliminate genetic disorders, ensuring no child has to suffer from these defects any longer. Long term, this gives us a tool to take control of our own evolution in a way never before possible. Couldn't be more excited for wha…
We can already detect and eliminate genetic disorders.
here's a TODO list i made for possibly interesting genome editing targets: http://diyhpl.us/wiki/genetic-modifications/ Many of these have low demonstrated correlation or significance so don't just blindly load everything on that document into your at-home CRISPR kit http://www.the-odin.com/gene-engineering-kits/ but it should be a good starting point for thinking about what can be modified, improved, disimproved, et…
Is there any differences in the amount of work (or tech) necessary for editing these "enhancement" genes as compared to what the guys in the article did? In other words, is it any harder to edit some genes as compared to others?