It will create a new class, but an important aspect of it to point out is, this technology is really cheap compared to what it used to be, It will be accessible even for us "mortals".
just imagine how much more disappointed the parents who spent stupid amount of money genetically engineering their kid to be the smartest kid in the class when he/she decides he/she wants to be in a rock band instead of being president.
Joking aside though i hate that this will effectively turn children into a product. The amount of parents who already feel some sense of ownership over their children's lives is already horrific.
The more beneficial use of it is in ridding children of heritable diseases. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to prevent a child from getting Huntington's disease? Or how about correcting the error that results in xerodurma pigmentosum, so the child could live a normal life and play outside in the sun.
These are situations which arise for a lot of the biotech endeavors, there are aspects of them which are universally agreeable as wonderful. However these are powerful technologies and with that comes along the ability to do morally questionable things. A lot of discussions will need to be had in the future to address all of these potential concerns. However from the perspective of someone doing work on these sorts of enzymes, the potential for good is there and it's what is driving a lot of researchers (I'm sure there are some in it for the glory or something too, but most of us at the bench just want to do something that will help others).
I wrote a post on CRISPR a while back. It's a very interesting technology, however lets not get too carried away with what we can currently do with it.
Interesting... anyways, please re-read the post and watch the video that's supposed to be watched... You seem to misunderstand the post somehow.... :))
I don't misunderstand the post at all. :) My statement was more of a semantical one, this technology holds great promise. In practice though, more work needs to be done. On the bright side, I know of quite a few very interesting projects going on pertaining to CRISPR and Cas9 currently.
however lets not get too carried away with what we can currently do with it.
You seem to misunderstand, I'm not saying we can "fix" people now.....nor getting carried away what we can do currently with it. The post clearly states at what stage, CRISPR is right now and what the future might bring, if you like join the discussion and state your opinion on the morality of it, like the scientists did back in December...I'd be glad to hear your input on this.
I am all for gene editing to correct debilitating diseases. I do not personally think people should be able to edit the genomes of their children for cosmetic reasons (biologically speaking). These sorts of things bring out the question, what does it mean to be human?
I'm not well informed about the technology, but if it's really possible I think "the perfect" world is unachievable goal. I believe this kind of "improvement" will be very expensive, at least at the beginning, but until something could change there will be already at least two society layers. Thus there always will be those who could not use it, at least because it'll be too expensive.
Maybe overall idea is good, but I feel some natural disgust.. :( I think it'll promote people's laziness. It's OK to cure diseases with this thing, even psychological, etc.. But humans are really lazy, so I think it'll be started to use in order for parents not to spend any time educating their kids. Theoretically it's OK till the outcome is fine, but I personally feel it's somewhat wrong... Of course, I may be just not ready for new technologies yet, they do scare me, honestly. :)
Interesting thing you say there is that it will be expensive, well It's not, that's the "problem" and part of it that makes it so revolutionary. But, yeah in some extent new technology is both frightening and exciting.
No, I didn't mean that it will be expensive as such, but my idea was that it will be expensive as a service, because it gives great opportunities, and people will be paying for that.
Also, a possible issue could be that some viruses could be created that will cut out some good parts from genome, something similar to computer viruses - new era in terrorism.
@minion
This will eventually create a new class of humans. Those that can go under mods will prevail. The poor will perish.
It will create a new class, but an important aspect of it to point out is, this technology is really cheap compared to what it used to be, It will be accessible even for us "mortals".
just imagine how much more disappointed the parents who spent stupid amount of money genetically engineering their kid to be the smartest kid in the class when he/she decides he/she wants to be in a rock band instead of being president.
Joking aside though i hate that this will effectively turn children into a product. The amount of parents who already feel some sense of ownership over their children's lives is already horrific.
The more beneficial use of it is in ridding children of heritable diseases. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to prevent a child from getting Huntington's disease? Or how about correcting the error that results in xerodurma pigmentosum, so the child could live a normal life and play outside in the sun.
I don't have any issues with it for medical purposes at all. the "build a baby" aspect of it though is a very different story.
These are situations which arise for a lot of the biotech endeavors, there are aspects of them which are universally agreeable as wonderful. However these are powerful technologies and with that comes along the ability to do morally questionable things. A lot of discussions will need to be had in the future to address all of these potential concerns. However from the perspective of someone doing work on these sorts of enzymes, the potential for good is there and it's what is driving a lot of researchers (I'm sure there are some in it for the glory or something too, but most of us at the bench just want to do something that will help others).
I wrote a post on CRISPR a while back. It's a very interesting technology, however lets not get too carried away with what we can currently do with it.
No offense, this makes me think that you don't understand this technology?
I have used Cas9, so I am pretty familiar with the technology.
Interesting... anyways, please re-read the post and watch the video that's supposed to be watched... You seem to misunderstand the post somehow.... :))
I don't misunderstand the post at all. :) My statement was more of a semantical one, this technology holds great promise. In practice though, more work needs to be done. On the bright side, I know of quite a few very interesting projects going on pertaining to CRISPR and Cas9 currently.
You seem to misunderstand, I'm not saying we can "fix" people now.....nor getting carried away what we can do currently with it. The post clearly states at what stage, CRISPR is right now and what the future might bring, if you like join the discussion and state your opinion on the morality of it, like the scientists did back in December...I'd be glad to hear your input on this.
I am all for gene editing to correct debilitating diseases. I do not personally think people should be able to edit the genomes of their children for cosmetic reasons (biologically speaking). These sorts of things bring out the question, what does it mean to be human?
Exactly, I'm also against "cosmetic" changes and yes they do.
I'm not well informed about the technology, but if it's really possible I think "the perfect" world is unachievable goal. I believe this kind of "improvement" will be very expensive, at least at the beginning, but until something could change there will be already at least two society layers. Thus there always will be those who could not use it, at least because it'll be too expensive.
Maybe overall idea is good, but I feel some natural disgust.. :( I think it'll promote people's laziness. It's OK to cure diseases with this thing, even psychological, etc.. But humans are really lazy, so I think it'll be started to use in order for parents not to spend any time educating their kids. Theoretically it's OK till the outcome is fine, but I personally feel it's somewhat wrong... Of course, I may be just not ready for new technologies yet, they do scare me, honestly. :)
Interesting thing you say there is that it will be expensive, well It's not, that's the "problem" and part of it that makes it so revolutionary. But, yeah in some extent new technology is both frightening and exciting.
No, I didn't mean that it will be expensive as such, but my idea was that it will be expensive as a service, because it gives great opportunities, and people will be paying for that.
Also, a possible issue could be that some viruses could be created that will cut out some good parts from genome, something similar to computer viruses - new era in terrorism.
Very interesting points.
This is an idea I never considered about it.... People could in fact do that. The only difficult part is the delivery of required guide and trRNA's.