CRISPR and other tools aren’t science fiction anymore. If the wealthy get there first, what happens to everyone else?
We’re getting the movie Gattaca IRL before Half-Life 3 and GTA 6 smdh
Libertarians not even building Rapture yet and they’re going full Gattaca? How gauche.
everytime i see “smdh” i think “shake my dick hard” for some reason.
Can’t unsee now, thanks
We’re still overdue for a eugenics war and WW3 before Star Trek timeline.
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.
Clicked the link to see how many references to Gattaca there would be. Was not disappointed
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.
Style and fashion will narrow down the field.
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.
As others have said, go see Gattaca. It’s completely about this topic and very interesting.
spoiler
An incredibly powerful scene. I still think about it regularly when thinking about human limitations.
Awesome movie.
Don’t worry. The poor will just become extinct like the other hominids that are no longer with us.
It shouldn’t be anything too bad.
Nothing of value was lost /s
But seriously, what a fucking bleak endgame
Nothing lasts forever. Homo sapiens was bound to be replaced by another hominid at some point.
“homo techno” according to grymes, lmao.
Despite being nearly 100 years old, Brave New World (1931), written by Aldous Huxley, covers the idea of class-based genetic engineering and genetics based class definition, as one of its core themes.
Nature takes its course.
Remember the rich tried to keep their genes separate from the masses by inbreeding. Look at where that got them.
Ah the Habsburgs… Not so much a family tree as a family broom handle.
a family wreath
That won’t work anymore if they can just edit their genes
But let’s look at anything that’s had their genes edited, bananas for example. They can’t breed and need to be cloned. One single disease will wipe out that genetically modified banana into extinction.
Same goes for humans. You edit something that’s not tried and tested against the very environment that you live in, you’re instantly vulnerable. Viruses and bacterium evolve much more quickly than we do and you just can’t edit genes fast enough to account for that.
So, on the bright side, the rich who will edit their genes to favour human traits will ultimately suffer the consequences of nature. Was brilliantly covered in War of the Worlds, the novel.
Just keep editing until you beat nature.
We cannot keep depending on that chaos bitch.
Er… Not possible.
Not with that attitude
Yes, we will end up with Eloi and Morlocs
For those not yet genetically engineered to have awareness of literature…
I still need to read Red Rising.
What change would a person who thinks they’re already perfect make?
Can never have too big of a dick. 🤷♂️
When the kid grows up “my dick is too big, I’m transitioning to get rid of it” 😂
Ooor they’ll turn their kids into “pugs” that are ultra-cute and good at passing certain tests but otherwise useless and unhealthy.
I’d definitely prefer we didn’t go down that path, but do consider the endpoint might be more The Time Traveler than Gattaca, because rich people aren’t exempt from being dumb.
If the ‘rich’ are anything about choosing genes as they have been about choosing plastic surgery, we know that most of them will make a complete hack of it and their offspring will suffer for it.
Exactly what I mean! Every time we’ve gotten real, subjective choices about the design of an organism we’ve ended up with something that’s paradoxically kinda bad by anyone’s judgement.
I do wish the ultra wealthy would just become morlocks and go underground forever.
The wealthy became the Eloi in that story, haha. You’re supposed to want to eat them.
You’re right, huge brain fart… I still wish they would all leave us alone forever, analogy or not
Hate to tell you but the morlocks weren’t the rich in that story.
It’s been a while since I read it, and now I’m ashamed because it’s one of my favorite books 😂
Gattaca offered the hopeful promise of profit maximization through mass production of genetic engineering, though it’s unclear if government subsidies helped with the profit maximization.
Time will certainly create political pressure to make the bestest babies for the races who deserve the bestest babies. Maybe that does mean no medicaid coverage.
The strongest case for only ultra rich having access, is that it’s just a status symbol. AI and robotics will do all the work, so why be smart or fit? How smart do you need to be to just support fascist genocide? Being smart is only a path to considering human needs above fascist supremacist needs as a path to sustainability, with sustainability considered of value. Stupidity far more useful to near term “theft profitability with no consequences” of fascism.
Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress. A scifi that deals with the creation of classes based on whether you can afford to buy your children good genes. Politicians are charismatic, ruthless and good looking, because they are bred for politics. In this world people without genemods are sorta out of luck, without any of the tools or enhancements rich genemod people have.
Or, check out GATTACA, good movie.
I’m compelled to mention every time GATTACA is mentioned, that the title is made up of the amino acids* that comprise our DNA: A,T,C,G
*nucleic acids
I’ve never studied anything about genetics or DNA, but I didn’t know that until the first time I showed my then girlfriend (now wife). Once the general premise became clear, she said something like “I should have guessed, since the title is made with A,T,C,G.”
Nucleic acids
Damn, u right.
You know I never noticed that but that’s a nice subtle reference.
Wish they had a blooper reel called TATTACA.
(That was all five of you biochemists out there)
