CRISPR and other tools aren’t science fiction anymore. If the wealthy get there first, what happens to everyone else?

  • redwattlebird @lemmings.world
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    1 day ago

    Nature takes its course.

    Remember the rich tried to keep their genes separate from the masses by inbreeding. Look at where that got them.

      • redwattlebird @lemmings.world
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        5 hours ago

        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.