Cheap Fast Powerful Gene-Editing Will Soon Change the World

Man, they're really about to go there if they can easily edit genes.

"The end of life as we know it." That's how the cover of Wired characterized CRISPR, the fantastically versatile and cheap new gene-editing technology. CRISPR works in bacteria as a kind of immune system that identifies and cuts up viral DNA when it tries to invade them. Researchers have now adapted it to edit genes and genomes virtually at will.

The Wired piece promised that CRISPR will usher in a world where there is "no hunger, no pollution, no disease." Sounds perfectly terrible, doesn't it?

Critics worry that CRISPR will be used create "designer babies." In March, eighteen prominent scientists and bioethicists published an open letter in Science urging researchers to refrain for now from using CRISPR to modify human genomes. Nevertheless, Chinese scientists published research the next month in which they detailed their experiments using CRISPR to genetically modify triploid human embryos. (Such embryos could never have become babies.)

reason.com...

The Genie is already out of the bottle so there will not be much they can do to stop it. They can curtail it though.

I have mixed feelings on this because I truly believe these things are inevitable and just part of the evolution of our species. I think there will be a singularity and many of these technologies on the horizon will merge at some point. Things like machine intelligence, gene editing, robotics, nanotechnology, quantum computing and more.

a reply to: neoholographic

Still the issue with humanity as a whole, dont think a engineered baby will change our instincts.

a reply to: neoholographic

WOW, what an article. Thanks for the find, even though I'm no
fan at all of transhumanism. It's good to keep in touch---
and I suppose 'cheap, fast and powerful' gene editing has got to
be better for the live subject than expensive, slow and inept.

It kind of makes me curious sometimes with what the administrators
of the experiments did with the guys who were 'Preparation A to G'.
Translating that to the rest of the anatomy-- and with the snake handlers
as noble as they seem now, I may opt out of a firmware upgrade a spell.

originally posted by: Hyperia
a reply to: neoholographic

Still the issue with humanity as a whole, dont think a engineered baby will change our instincts.

you need a bigger imagination!
for one thing, a single person can certainly have an effect on the species instincts, for example, what is your instinctive reflex to the sight of a swastika? how bout before hitler existed? see? difference!

and for another thing, who ever said it could only be done to one baby! imagine hundreds, thousands, millions of these engineered humans, all with perfect health perfect reasoning abilities perfect iq scores, an entire slew of Einsteins just pumping out of a machine. really think that wont have an effect on our society?

The number of medical uses for this is quite outstanding and I for one do not mind using these techniques to eradicate many major causes of suffering.

Perfect babies sounds awesome to any parent.

Will it get misused? Yes, probably but fads come and go!

Will likely have more blondes and red heads than nature designs but then, so what.

In the end we will have a healthier species.

P

I hate to be that guy but.. the dark side of this is that this means they(somebody) already has the ability with nothing more then a gene marker to kill any one/group of living things on the planet.. easily.

originally posted by: SynchronousSnake
I hate to be that guy but.. the dark side of this is that this means they(somebody) already has the ability with nothing more then a gene marker to kill any one/group of living things on the planet.. easily.

Well, perhaps. But the first dozen or so times it has major blowback they might just shelve it.

Now, when you get to the stage of being able to eradicate all of the politicians, worldwide and in a short time-frame, get back to me!

What you suggest is not very plausible and exceedingly dangerous. After all of the planetary migrations to the new world, you may find the strangest gene marker right where you least expect it.

P

originally posted by: pheonix358

originally posted by: SynchronousSnake
I hate to be that guy but.. the dark side of this is that this means they(somebody) already has the ability with nothing more then a gene marker to kill any one/group of living things on the planet.. easily.

Well, perhaps. But the first dozen or so times it has major blowback they might just shelve it.

Now, when you get to the stage of being able to eradicate all of the politicians, worldwide and in a short time-frame, get back to me!

What you suggest is not very plausible and exceedingly dangerous. After all of the planetary migrations to the new world, you may find the strangest gene marker right where you least expect it.

P

Yeah ha ha laugh it off.
Not only is it plausible, it's most likely already been perfected in this day in age of black budgets and dark projects. every article on this technique not only suggests this but also states that it's easy,cheap and can be done virtually at will of who wields it.

There are different variation of Transhumanism ; but opposition to Transhumanism is a purly Western bias , non-Westerns , filter through their traditions , are Transhumanistic.

CRISPR is just another tool to make the world a better place , i dont like the emotionalism Jammed through those topics.

a reply to: SynchronousSnake

im always amazed at how optimistic people are when history proves dangerous technology is always used and innocents suffer as the result.

As long as g-engineers don't close the loop on random genesis in the grey matter department. The whole point of a broad genome is those rare spurts of originality (thought/expression) and unforseen evolution. They don't wanna paint themselves into a corner.

I always worry about western governments trying to stop genetically enhanced babys. first off, this has been going on since the stone age. when we find out something that helps strengthen a baby, we do it. This is just advanced versions of the same thing (a bit more directly influenced, sure, but premise remains).

And if we in the west dont do it, then the only outcome will be the east will do it and ultimately create a far superior labor and tech force than we have, toppling us within a generation. I say splice away. make beautiful athletic geniuses left and right.

a reply to: SynchronousSnake

X-Men springs to mind

I'd like some improvements done to me....if if isn't too late.

Here's another article:

Deleting genes could boost lifespan by 60 per cent, say scientists

They found that deleting a gene called LOS1 produced particularly impressive results, extending life by 60 per cent. LOS1 is linked to a genetic master switch which has long been associated with calorie restriction through fasting and increased lifespan.

"Calorie restriction has been known to extend lifespan for a long time," added Dr. Kennedy.

Co-author Dr Mark McCormick, of the Buck Institute said: "Our best results were single gene deletions that increased lifespan by around 60 per cent compared to normal yeast."

www.telegraph.co.uk...

This could be a good thing but it will run up against global warming fanaticism that wants to reduce the population. The last thing they want is people living longer.

I think when it comes to genetic enhancement, the first thing that comes to mind for me is Khan Noonien Singh from the Star Trek universe. Not to mention the cautionary tale of the movie Gattaca.

So, modern literature is full of doom porn related to eugenics. Of course this doesn't necessarily mean that reality will end up following this path. But it does give one pause when one considers the potential downside of tampering with the human genome. So, I think it is an area in which we need to tread lightly. But we will inevitably venture into this territory.

The other thing to consider is that the equipment to perform a lot of this genetic manipulation is readily available and actually relatively cheap. As I understand it, a few thousand dollars can equip a small lab that can perform genetic manipulation of bacteria. Imagine some eager-beaver who decides to introduce some of the characteristics of Necrotizing Fasciitis into the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae. We wind up with flesh-eating Gonorrhea.


I remember reading a sci-fi book when I was a kid back in the 1970s that dealt with some scientists who modified e. coli to eat plastic. They had the best of intentions; they wanted to create something to break down plastics in landfills. Unfortunately, the bacterium got loose and started eating all of the plastic in the world. As you can well imagine, that was rather apocalyptic.

So, I guess this field, more than most others, is a place where we need to walk softly. Even a single bad outcome could yield catastrophic results.

-dex

Sign me up for a regenerative treatment so i can regrow teeth and speed up my metabolism. I wonder if they can delete my gene that gave me Gout as well.

Haters can keep their mediocrity, I'm willing to take risks for that greatness.

I have been absolutely freaking out for the last week!
This whole idea of conspiracy theories is starting to make sense to me,
as I can find almost no major media outlet that it is reporting this story.
Most of the websites that I have been on are trying as hard as they can to
ignore this latest development in CRISPR.

The latest research has perfected CRISPR!!
I did not think this would be true for years.
Wonder what will happen at the International Summit on Gene Editing being
held in Washington on December 1st to 3rd.

They had originally talked of banning development of human germline applications.
How would that be possible now?

www.sciencedaily.com...

originally posted by: DexterRiley
I remember reading a sci-fi book when I was a kid back in the 1970s that dealt with some scientists who modified e. coli to eat plastic.

Mutant 59: The Plastic Eater. It was a novelization of a British "X-Files"-ish program called "Doomwatch", season 1, episode 1.

I can't find it on Amazon or Youtube, it might be out there in torrent land. The name of the ep is "The Plastic Eater".

eta: A less dramatic but more plausible sort of germ-doom movie/book is "No Blade of Grass". Which actually almost happened, although you won't find any links to it.

a reply to: Bedlam

Oh yeah there's lots of stuff.