Gene splicing and manipulation on the horizon

[Hmac]

I don't believe the scientific and medical communities will sufficiently understand how to apply this technology without causing unforeseen mutations, cancers, etc. There is still so much we do not understand re: controlling genes, downstream effects, etc. I believe it will be far longer than 10 years before this is applied clinically.

Ah grasshopper.....

[MegademiC]

Edit

Interesting stuff, definitely not an apocalypse, but a lot of potential, which is good.

[scooter22]

Technology and AI will make the vast majority of Homo sapiens obsolete.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

Technology and AI will make the vast majority of Homo sapiens obsolete.

Vast majority already are? I watched a dude in India sweeping up a construction site with a twig broom...

[tog]

I hate to say it but your pro is actually a con. Super humans will get tired of their inferior brethren and wipe them out. Wait until humans with literally superhuman powers decide the rest of us are "in the way" or "consuming their resources."

NOTHING good comes of this.

"...ridding themselves of the herd mentality." If I remember my philosophy from years ago, this was already considered by Nietzsche - the "Übermensch" or supermen.

[Hmac]

Current medical advances to date have stymied evolution. If we are to evolve further, or even prevent de-volving, gene manipulation is going to be how that happens. The way I figure it, we've only got a relatively short amount of geologic time before the usual species-killing event takes us out. We'd better get crackin'.

[Moose-Knuckle]

If this technology fixes all medical maladies and the population explodes, how does the planet support the masses?

It won't.

Healthy people do not generate profit for Big Pharma and Big Insurance.

Oh I'm sure the elite class will get all the latest greatest med tech but it will be priced out the plebs grasps. Watch / read any 20th century dystopian work to see where this will lead as previously eluded to by some other members.

1) They will splice animal characteristics into the human genome.

Every people group from all corners of the planet have a flood myth. This is precisely why the God of the Old Testament sent "Noah's flood" according to the text.

Technology and AI will make the vast majority of Homo sapiens obsolete.

Gray goo theory is a very possible reality.

I watched a dude in India sweeping up a construction site with a twig broom...

That has more purpose than many others I can think of . . .

[pinzgauer]

I have a friend alive now due to medication produced by genetically modified call lines. The odds are you do as well.

Most insulin is now produced via genetically modified organisms, and many of the hormones & antibodies went from high risk production techniques (hepatitis, etc from cadivers) to low risk GMO cell lines free of disease.

It's here, it's continuing. Yes, there are risks. But also rewards.

[chuckman]

Just as with many, many other areas of science and medicine, the ethics will adjust to the new frontiers and new capabilities. It is absolutely commonplace throughout history that what had been previously unethical becomes completely ethical as science marches on. It is also absolutely commonplace for some people to decry the "ethics" without really even understanding the technology or its possibilities. http://creatingminds.org/quotes/by_experts.htm

But they don't, not always. I know I see docs slapping themselves on the back after delivering that 24-weeker; or, high-fiving after getting a pulse back after someone coding for an hour. It goes back to, we do it because we can, not because it's always right; it's a mindset thing, not a technology thing. I saw it in paramedics, and I see it in world-renowned neurosurgeons.

I know I am a knuckle-dragging troglodyte of the cro-magnon variety, but I have a pretty decent grasp of the evolution of medical technology/practice and ethics. To be certain, I am not anti-genetic engineering; but rather fully aware of both the good and the bad that can come from any technological evolution.

[BrigandTwoFour]

Fears of Frankenstein's monster aside, we've been going do n this path for a long time. It was inevitable. Sure, there are very real concerns about society turning into GATTACA, and maybe a a Khan in there for good measure. But we are already st the point where someone with a masters degree, funding, and a space to work could develop a virus capable of wiping out the human race.

I know several people and kids with rare genetic disorders who would have their lives completely changed by this technology. It's here, it's not going anywhere, so let's put it to good use.