Pandora's box Genetically Engineering the Brave New World

[skirtboy]

Robert Heinlein did a book about this subject. The point he made was that any modification much more severe than simply weeding out defective genes would have severe conseqenses. (For example, an empire was built with Genetic super-soldiers, but the only way that empire could control that power was to make them wholly dependent on the directives of the Imperial Command. A few assasinations and the whole Empire collabsed, and the sterile troops died out.) I'll post the title later.

 

[So fist]

um systematicanifailure you're kind of taking this to like a magical fantasy realm.

they're not talking about making humans into super saiyans, they're talking about simply editing genes to weed out deficiencies and perhaps endorse qualities. this whole GATTACA/eugenics debate is about things we CAN do to take what we have and make it the most perfect form of that.

when two donors come in, the only genes they have to work with are the very genes which are donated. a mother and a father would have their genes combined. The combination would be edited with other available genes. It would not be comprised of magically making this chromosome REALLY BIG or something--they can't work with genetic material they just don't have.

you'd never see a plaid baby with giant muscles that its spine doesn't support because, simply put, there are no genes to do that!

perhaps, in many generations, scientists may discover a way to CREATE genetic material from simple amino acid chains, but for the time being, all they can move around is the shit they already have. rearrange, cut, paste. not create.

example: so two parents walk in. they're both black. they don't have ANY blonde genes, but they want a blonde kid. either they're going to have to find a donor for some blonde genes, or else they're not getting a blonde kid.

as for altering actual physical structure - that'd break the body down. you can splice in some "athlete" traits, but to actually CREATE a brute with little dangly legs, it'd involve a process DECADES more sophisticated than anything we'd see in our lifetime.

If only the potential were as limited as you think and as far away as you seem to believe.  An NPR special that dealt with this issue covered a story where MIT grad students working with some kind of yeast that smelled like shit, genetically altered it by forcing an integration of peppermint genetic material responsible for its scent and raised a crop of peppermint scented yeast for which to test with.  The potential for genetic engineering is not limited by the natural constraints of the organism.  Its limited by our knowledge of genetic code and what it does.  I don't believe that means we'll be breeding genetic monsters or anything silly like that.  Yet I do see the "benefit" stuff getting its play: life extension, cosmetics, enhanced attributes, gills, ect.  The question that remains is one of ethics and metaphysics.  What does it mean to be human in a world where that isn't good enough anymore?