2 ms·

I am saddened by the comments expressed here. They proudly support gene hacking and unsympathetically hate all those who call for caution and care. We keep add

I am saddened by the comments expressed here. They proudly support gene hacking and unsympathetically hate all those who call for caution and care. We keep adding to our information banks about DNA. We had and have more questions than answers about the complexities of DNA. And yet we still want to modify the gene artificially and put the results into production without waiting on more research. This seems like a form of hubris, because we think the knowledge we have is enough. The opponents of genetic modification give anger and frustration to supporters that they end up putting on side blinders and blissfully ignore all of the very causes of concern. It is a behavior similar to global warming skeptics reacting against climate change alarmists. Philosophically speaking, there is a concept called the Dunning-Kruger effect: The people with the least doubt in what they are doing perform the worst, whereas the people with the most doubt perform a whole lot better. Doubt is healthy, and foolish pride/arrogance can only lead us to failure. So let's agree that more research is needed. And let's not bash those who want to side with caution. And let's allow for freedom and respect to label GMO's as GMOs. We reach a healthy society, not a dictating one.

michael_h 11y ago
> Philosophically speaking, there is a concept called the Dunning-Kruger effect: The people with the least doubt in what they are doing perform the worst, whereas the people with the most doubt perform a whole lot better. That's not what the Dunning-Kruger paper said. Simplified to a sentence, it could be paraphrased as "We are unqualified to evaluate our own performance". People who perform the worst generally still rate themselves as performing the worst, they just think they are a whole lot closer to everyone else than they actually are.
pilom 11y ago
So what level of proof that these are safe would you like? I haven't been able to find a SINGLE case in the 30+ years of genetically modifying food where a person had an adverse reaction directly related to the genetic modification. Even if you up the requirements for testing to match what is required for drug companies with clinical trials, every single genetic modification we have done so far would have passed those trials with flying colors.
jbob2000 11y ago
Here's the thing about wanting more research; you can always do more research. There's no such thing as having a full understanding of something, so it's a bit of a cop-out to just say "ehhh, more research is needed". You can say that till the cows come home. And aside from that, we still don't even really understand "food", there's no "food science" that is even close to accurate. There are millions of people involved in the food supply chain. At some point, if a GMO food becomes toxic to us, by sheer probability, someone involved in food will raise the alarms. I think the caution around GMO foods is misplaced. GMO, Organic, or neither, the kid at the grocery store sprays chemicals all over them multiple times a day to keep them fresh. Vegetables and fruits are picked under-ripe and ripened with chemicals. The food is packaged in plastics and shipped along a smokey, polluted freeway. Of all the things to attack about the food supply chain, GMO is the last thing to worry about.
Kalium 11y ago
I feel for those who fear GMOs. Food is incredibly intimate. They're terrified that the stuff they literally subsist upon is being fucked around with in ways they don't understand by people they don't know for reasons they don't grasp. They feel their fears aren't being taken seriously and engaged with as reasonable concerns. They feel dismissed and belittled by people who look down on them. There. Some sympathy. Feeling better? Cool. Because basically none of the concerns and fears that most consumers have are reasonable. Most of them are nothing more unjustified, baseless terror of the fishberries someone said are here to poison them. How should I - or anyone - react to that? You cannot reason with a person possessed of such terror. I've tried. You cannot educate them. I've tried that too. You can't listen to them, offer sympathy and compassion and understanding, and then try to reason with them. I've tried that too, and it blows up in spectacular fashion.

michael_h 11y ago

> Philosophically speaking, there is a concept called the Dunning-Kruger effect: The people with the least doubt in what they are doing perform the worst, whereas the people with the most doubt perform a whole lot better. That's not what the Dunning-Kruger paper said. Simplified to a sentence, it could be paraphrased as "We are unqualified to evaluate our own performance". People who perform the worst generally still rate themselves as performing the worst, they just think they are a whole lot closer to everyone else than they actually are.

pilom 11y ago

So what level of proof that these are safe would you like? I haven't been able to find a SINGLE case in the 30+ years of genetically modifying food where a person had an adverse reaction directly related to the genetic modification. Even if you up the requirements for testing to match what is required for drug companies with clinical trials, every single genetic modification we have done so far would have passed those trials with flying colors.

jbob2000 11y ago

Here's the thing about wanting more research; you can always do more research. There's no such thing as having a full understanding of something, so it's a bit of a cop-out to just say "ehhh, more research is needed". You can say that till the cows come home. And aside from that, we still don't even really understand "food", there's no "food science" that is even close to accurate. There are millions of people involved in the food supply chain. At some point, if a GMO food becomes toxic to us, by sheer probability, someone involved in food will raise the alarms. I think the caution around GMO foods is misplaced. GMO, Organic, or neither, the kid at the grocery store sprays chemicals all over them multiple times a day to keep them fresh. Vegetables and fruits are picked under-ripe and ripened with chemicals. The food is packaged in plastics and shipped along a smokey, polluted freeway. Of all the things to attack about the food supply chain, GMO is the last thing to worry about.

Kalium 11y ago

I feel for those who fear GMOs. Food is incredibly intimate. They're terrified that the stuff they literally subsist upon is being fucked around with in ways they don't understand by people they don't know for reasons they don't grasp. They feel their fears aren't being taken seriously and engaged with as reasonable concerns. They feel dismissed and belittled by people who look down on them. There. Some sympathy. Feeling better? Cool. Because basically none of the concerns and fears that most consumers have are reasonable. Most of them are nothing more unjustified, baseless terror of the fishberries someone said are here to poison them. How should I - or anyone - react to that? You cannot reason with a person possessed of such terror. I've tried. You cannot educate them. I've tried that too. You can't listen to them, offer sympathy and compassion and understanding, and then try to reason with them. I've tried that too, and it blows up in spectacular fashion.