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Genetically Modified People

We kind of already do this with test tube babies. Parents can pick the sex of their child to be. Also, when women seek sperm donors for artificial insemination, they will usually pick those donors with the BEST genetic properties.
 
ChrisL said:
We kind of already do this with test tube babies. Parents can pick the sex of their child to be. Also, when women seek sperm donors for artificial insemination, they will usually pick those donors with the BEST genetic properties.
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Exactly. All we'd really be doing is making that process a bit more scientific and precise.

You could use your own genetic material, and simply tweak it to bring out the best properties in the code while minimizing the worst.
 
Gathomas88 said:
To the contrary, a great many people (myself included) would argue that civilization's primary aim should lie in pushing the boundaries of human ambition and achievement forward.
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I would say that isn't a goal. It is a direction. It may be positive or it may not be. What humanity really seeks is survival. Governments, businesses and all the trappings of humanity share the lust for survival.



Take two of the most problematic behaviors of our age, for instance; promiscuity and gluttony. Early in our evolutionary history, these instincts served a legitimately useful purpose. They helped to ensure that our ancestors were able to pass on their genes and find adequate nutrition in environments where mates and food could potentially be quite scarce.
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I'll bow out right here. I find it amazing that you consider them to be the most problematic behaviors of our age. No point in going any further with me.
 
fmw said:
I would say that isn't a goal. It is a direction. It may be positive or it may not be. What humanity really seeks is survival. Governments, businesses and all the trappings of humanity share the lust for survival.
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Quite frankly, that's not good enough. :shrug:

We're capable of much more than simply "getting by," and should aspire to it. Successful civilizations require some kind of vision behind them.

I'll bow out right here. I find it amazing that you consider them to be the most problematic behaviors of our age. No point in going any further with me.
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First off, I said they were two of the "most problematic behaviors of our age," not the most. Grammar and syntax are important in this regard.

Secondly, they are problematic. Illegitimacy is one of the most pervasive causes of endemic poverty in the developed world, and AIDs and heart disease combined kill enough people worldwide to populate a mid-sized country each and every year.
 
Gathomas88 said:
I've got no problem with it whatsoever in general principle. I'd simply ask that tampering be kept within reasonable limits (i.e. improvements and performance tweaks upon the existing design of the human body only, no drastic or fundamental changes in form or function).

At the end of the day, the human body is a machine like any other. Build a better machine, and you will get better results out of it. By essentially "editing out" many of humanity's oldest and most troublesome flaws, we could easily improve both society, and the human condition in general, by leaps and bounds.

The only caveats I'd add to this is that we would have to be careful not to allow too much change in any one direction, and to prevent any one agenda driven group from gaining a monoply on the ability to alter the human form. They might very well attempt to change us in ways that would be beneficial to their ideology, but detrimental to humanity at large.

Imagine if the Nazis actually had been able to create a "master race" of supersoldiers, for instance, or if the Soviets had attempted to make a breed of human being which was optimized to living under totalitarian rule. The potential consequences of such tampering are a bit frightening to say the least.
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Pretty much what Gathomas said. :yt
 
Gathomas88 said:
Quite frankly, that's not good enough. :shrug:

We're capable of much more than simply "getting by," and should aspire to it. Successful civilizations require some kind of vision behind them.
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We've certainly proven that. I didn't say anything about simply getting by. I brought up the more important, fundamental need to survive.



First off, I said they were two of the "most problematic behaviors of our age," not the most. Grammar and syntax are important in this regard.

Secondly, they are problematic. Illegitimacy is one of the most pervasive causes of endemic poverty in the developed world, and AIDs and heart disease combined kill enough people worldwide to populate a mid-sized country each and every year.
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Forgive me for my grammar.
 
Lotta people envision the future as "mostly like today, but with better gadgets."


If they live long enough, they're going to get their socks blown off by the changes that are a-coming.
 
Gathomas88 said:
Exactly. All we'd really be doing is making that process a bit more scientific and precise.

You could use your own genetic material, and simply tweak it to bring out the best properties in the code while minimizing the worst.
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Well, if you knew carried the gene to a disease, you might want to eradicate that if possible. That would be a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Things like breast cancer.

Hey, even male pattern baldness for all the baldies out there! :2razz:
 
ChrisL said:
Well, if you knew carried the gene to a disease, you might want to eradicate that if possible. That would be a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Things like breast cancer.

Hey, even male pattern baldness for all the baldies out there! :2razz:
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That's sexy bald bad-ass to you, baby... :)


baldrock.webp
 
Or we could get rid of some of the many horrible, physically deforming birth defects that plague humanity! Think about it, guys! No more gingers!
 
Jesse Booth said:
Or we could get rid of some of the many horrible, physically deforming birth defects that plague humanity! No more gingers!
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Uh-oh, you're in trouble now! :lol: The gingers are going to attack!
 
ChrisL said:
Uh-oh, you're in trouble now! :lol: The gingers are going to attack!
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Oh God no! Don't let them steal my soul! Wait... do gingers count as an ethnic group? I messed up earlier today already. I need to check the rules real quick.

Okay, I'm good. There's nothing about insulting a genetic subset of a race. i should be fine.
 
I think that genetic engineering is going to completely revolutionize mankind as we know it. It will start out in small steps - subtle modifications for health purposes, to prevent cancers, correct rare genetic disorders, increase longevity, etc. But as we acclimate ourselves to the idea of genetic manipulation and our understanding of how our genetic code works and we get better at tweaking it in the direction we want, I think it's simply inevitable that we will begin to make larger and larger improvements.

Altering our physical bodies is the first step, but the real change will come when we start to manipulate our brains. Again I imagine it will start off slow - subtle improvements to memory, motor control, etc. But sooner or later we'll start messing with higher cognitive function. And I think that will ignite a sort of positive-feedback growth of human knowledge and intelligence. Basically, the singularity, transcendence, nirvana. :lol:

Will it be good or bad? No idea. But I'm all for it. In the words of Morpheus - I wanna see how deep the rabbit hole goes. :2razz:
 
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If gingers don't have souls, then how come peeka chaka no wookiee boonawa tweepie Solo? Ho ho hoooo.

images


Gingers: 0
Genetic engineers: 0
Jabba the Hutt: 1
 
Amadeus said:
What is your take on the genetic manipulation of humans? Should it be an acceptable practice when the science reaches that point, or should it be off limits except in rare cases (e.g. birth defects)?
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only if it can give me a 12 inch penis,and steroid junkie muscles,and the ability to make love for 72 hours without breaking a sweat,oh and the technology be destroyed after being used on me.

outside those conditions no genetic modification on people should exist.
 
Amadeus said:
I believe humans will eventually need to be genetically modified to survive as a species. Our technology is outpacing our evolution.
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Genetic manipulation will never trump evolution. Don't bother with it.
 
Jerry said:
Godwin'd in 3 posts. Damn!
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Is there some law about how long after the name 'Hitler' is mentioned before someone says, "Godwin!"
I mean, that whole 'godwin' thing is just so, uh, nevermind.
 
Gathomas88 said:
Why not?

Technology has already done pretty much exactly that, and has been doing so for centuries.
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Not for centuries, not by my definition of genetic manipulation.
Right now, today, the US agribusiness is in a very vulnerable position due to reliance on a handful of genetically engineered plants. There are very dedicated individuals saving seeds from obscure, ancient species and those people could very well one day save much of humanity.
Genetic manipulation and engineering is science getting sexy but I'm not convinced there's anything good can come of it.
 
This will no doubt get me in trouble, but after nearly six years on this forum I would leap at the chance for science to genetically modify human intelligence to allow thought patterns to evolve beyond "uh-uh, you bleeding liberal scum" and "eff you, you piece of conservative crap".

I know, I know. Kill me now.
 
Grand Mal said:
Not for centuries, not by my definition of genetic manipulation.
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"Not for centuries" is a bit different than "will never".

There's no inherent reason intelligent genetic manipulation could never "trump" (whatever the **** that means) natural selection. Natural selection works by trying random strings of DNA base pairs. Every once in a while by pure chance you'll get a sequence of pairs that produces a phenotype that is better able to replicate and perpetuate its genetic sequence. It's a horribly inefficient process that only works on massive time scales.

There's no reason you can't make the process orders of magnitude more efficient by strategically selecting the sequences instead of rolling dice. It just requires an understanding of what the sequence changes would mean and the technological means to create the changes you want. We're making good progress toward both those.

I think within 500 years we will have completely replaced natural selection of our genome with "artificial" selection, and mankind will be almost unrecognizable to the homo sapiens we are today.

Either that, or we will have inadvertently killed ourselves off. :)
 
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