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> eugenics Well, in this case CRISPR wouldn't make much sense for negative eugenics—i.e. trimming the gene pool—vs positive eugenics—purposely introducing or m
by duaneb 11y ago
> eugenics
Well, in this case CRISPR wouldn't make much sense for negative eugenics—i.e. trimming the gene pool—vs positive eugenics—purposely introducing or manipulating existing genes.
While the latter is still scary, it's not exactly close to the mass sterilization people think of.
- azinman2 11y agoNegative eugenics is currently being planned for deployment to control which mosquitos are able to reproduce. http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v34/n1/full/nbt.3439.html http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v34/n1/full/nbt.3439.html https://medium.com/mit-media-lab/kevin-esvelt-joins-the-media-lab-3e33fe24f90#.y2qfqy39w https://medium.com/mit-media-lab/kevin-esvelt-joins-the-medi...
- afarrell 11y agoWhich I applaud for the same reason I applaud some of the extinctions we have caused.
- ktRolster 11y agoWhich extinction do you applaud?
- spb 11y agoI can't help but feel like life is easier without sabertoothed tigers roaming the streets
- Dylan16807 11y agoThere are non-extinct big scary cats. They don't cause much trouble. We'd be doing fine without that extinction.
- cat-dev-null 11y agohttp://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.html http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.html
- afarrell 11y agoSmallpox. And I hope we succeed with Polio over the next few years.
- duaneb 11y agoOh wow, no exaggeration. I stand corrected.
- whitegrape 11y agoIt'd be nice to remember original meanings. The "eu" of eugenics means "good" (and how this good is accomplished "positively" or "negatively" doesn't matter), humans have been practicing it for ages though on a much less sophisticated scale (and not as much on our own selves) than things like CRISPR allows for. The thing we should be worried about is dysgenics, "dys" meaning "bad".
- illumen 11y agoDefine bad. Would my skin colour and gender fall under that definition?
- duaneb 11y agoSex is genetic, gender is social.
- omginternets 11y agoHmm I'm not sure that's accurate. At least, I've seen some claims of gender being linked to genotype in some capacity. More to the point, talking about sex and gender in the same breath is quite often absurd. Gender theory is a sociological theory, not a scientific one, and while sociology is a useful tool for certain problems, it's hardly reproducible, or falsifiable.
- duaneb 11y agoSure, there may be genetic links, but sex is 100% genetic. Why bring in gender at all when its hard to apply eugenics to it when the link is so poorly understood?
- omginternets 11y agoThat was my point, so we're in agreement. (I've edited my post to make it clearer). Edit: on second thought, we're not so much in agreement as nothing is fully genetic or environmental. There are, for instance, cases of XY females. I'd agree if you said the genetic link was orders of magnitude stronger between genes and sex, but the "100%" perpetuates a common misunderstanding of genetics.