CRISPR and other tools aren’t science fiction anymore. If the wealthy get there first, what happens to everyone else?
No, your assumption is that there is an ideal DNA code when there isn’t. They will still just be people like everyone else.
If anything eventually it’ll be like gardening seeds. Where yeah, there’s a lot of hybrid seeds that might be good for certain traits, but what a bunch of gardeners really want are heirloom varieties that are more naturally-selected and therefore more reliable over multiple generations.
No, not really that either. That is also advocating for eugenics.
We know there are diseases like cystic fibrosis that would benefit from gene editing. That is not an issue to treat.
It’s just that humans need genetic variety or we will go the route of the Gros Michel banana when a disease hits. There are people immune to HIV for instance - that is good for them for some things, but it is likely that means they have other trade offs for this trait. Gene editing everyone to have it could theoretically mean a different disease like giardia or cholera or whatever could be easier to contract and more deadly.
The advantage of humans is adaptability. We need genetic variety to be adaptable. We cannot all be the same. There is no perfect genetic code or perfect “Adam DNA,” (conservatives believe there is an original DNA code that God gave Adam and if they can access it, they will live hundreds of years like the Bible said people did). They think this because they don’t believe in evolution.
Recommend the book “Half Earth” by E.O. Wilson to better understand why genetic diversity is important. It isn’t long at all.
Want to alsonadd (because for some reason I can no longer edit my own comments on any instance) that the wealthy have been stealing the poor’s DNA for millenia and they still look like, well, Mark Davis.
That’s why they love gold diggers, love strippers, athletes (see Serena Williams who is married to a billionare), actresses, etc - they’ve BEEN trying to do this the whole time.
Style and fashion will narrow down the field.
In Echopraxia, the transhuman pilot repeatedly calls the old guy a “roach”.
“I’ve told you before, Daniel: roach isn’t an insult. We’re the ones still standing after the mammals build their nukes, we’re the ones with the stripped-down OS’s so damned simple they work under almost any circumstances. We’re the goddamned Kalashnikovs of thinking meat.”
― Peter Watts, Echopraxia
And one of my favorite Heinlein quotes:
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
― Robert A. Heinlein
Ah once again i wish i read books… I think if I was to pick up a book it would be the novels behind the show The Expanse. I feel like they left a lot out of the show that was in the books.
Definitely worth the read. The show was a great adaptation with some necessary compromises for a TV adaptation, but also, you have 3 (4) more books beyond season 6.
Aw man really? If there is an incentive to read that’s it.
Absolutely. Time jump + story in the evolved situation for mankind. Final book is a collection of all the short novels, some of which were integrated into the show (“Drive”, “Strange Dogs”), or alluded to (" The Churn"). But others are new reading material. I recommend reading the novels & main books in chronological order.
We did the audiobooks of the expanse and loved them!
They have bigger problems
It’ll be even worse when they gene edit other people to be their slaves and/or personal armies.
That will apply in certain countries.
This is the theme of the Divergent series.
Huh. I guess I didn’t really never thought of it that way
Shhh!
You’re not supposed to say the quiet part out loud!
Just keep pretending our societies are equitable.
Let them pick their own damned cotton.
We’re still overdue for a eugenics war and WW3 before Star Trek timeline.
Yeah it will be new class of morons that will buy out all the water and energy to feed their shiny computers so you can live in dark and starve to death.
When?
Why do you think so many use surrogates now?
They’re 100% at least doing illegal selections, but I would be shocked if none of them are doing out right editing.
It already exists im sure, but I guess they take the risks for long-term consequences.
As someone suffering from a terrible genetic disease that will kill me soon, any amount of preventing these diseases under any circumstances gets a thumbs up from me.
Sadly, the most probable cloning related future would be Gattaca
^(edit typo)
Yeah, I think we should probably allow the technology that will prevent people being born with these diseases first, and then worry about how we’re going to deal with the other stuff. This technology isn’t going to be possible to hold back indefinitely anyway.
Yes, we will end up with Eloi and Morlocs
For those not yet genetically engineered to have awareness of literature…
Here’s a scarier thought, if they can fine tune this shit enough they’ll probably just clone themselves and pull a ship of Theseus on themselves. Removing the only remaining equalizer between them and the rest of humanity.
The rich fucks at the top want to become gods. They won’t call it that but that’s the end game for the ones with the most hand on the wheel.
The House of the Scorpion explores this further.
That is just having heirs with more steps.
and an even greater dependency on industrial processes
I’ll be dead, humanity is fucked as i see it but things could change i guess.
Humanity has been fucked many times before. Humans migrated out of Africa TWICE. We have been nearly wiped out several times. Maybe this will be the last time. Maybe Humans will migrate out of Africa a third time…
Reference provided, but not read.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_human_migrations
Don’t worry, they’re absolutely stupid enough to practice CRISPR to the point where their kids are inbreeding within a generation because their CRISPR fixed genetics made them all too biologically similar to create effectively genetically diverse offspring.
Techno fuedalism is still fuedalism. So that means idiots all at the top.
Wonder what the new Hapsburg chin will be.
The rest will argue amongst themselves about why gamma always gets the laurel
Don’t get that reference…
Red rising
Red rising
I envy you people who read books. I only read maybe 5 books in my adult life. Never liked reading.
Have you tried different formats? Some like physical books best, others prefer e-readers, some swear by audiobooks…?
