CRISPR and other tools aren’t science fiction anymore. If the wealthy get there first, what happens to everyone else?
Clicked the link to see how many references to Gattaca there would be. Was not disappointed
We’re getting the movie Gattaca IRL before Half-Life 3 and GTA 6 smdh
everytime i see “smdh” i think “shake my dick hard” for some reason.
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.
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.
We’re still overdue for a eugenics war and WW3 before Star Trek timeline.
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.
I still need to read Red Rising.
Yes, we will end up with Eloi and Morlocs
For those not yet genetically engineered to have awareness of literature…
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” 😂
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.
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.
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.
This is the theme of the Divergent series.
Huh. I guess I didn’t really never thought of it that way
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 😂
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
Nucleic acids
Damn, u right.
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.”
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)
