4 ms·

This is definitely true, but all of these genes have been vetted by millions of years of evolution, so we know they're rock solid. The edits we're talking about

This is definitely true, but all of these genes have been vetted by millions of years of evolution, so we know they're rock solid. The edits we're talking about will be happening on a time scale that won't be constrained by natural selection, so by the time a weakness is found in one of these new genes, it's likely that it will already be widely adopted. I guess what I'm saying is that it's hard to anticipate what natural selection will look like when we multiply the "mutation rate" by probably > 10 orders of magnitude.

logfromblammo 9y ago
Certain breeds of dog get hip dysplasia. Dalmations go deaf. Molosser breeds often have respiratory issues, particularly pugs. This has not stopped people from breeding dogs. Natural selection will be out the window. It will be replaced entirely by intentional selection. We will certainly see new diseases rooted in human vanity and hubris, and they will become business opportunities for surgeons and pharmacists, just as our natural and lifestyle ailments have become moneymaking industries. So the great-grandchildren of people that were gifted by their parents with then-fashionable gene mutations will have all new reasons to pay for health care. And Sylvester McMonkey McBean simply unveils his star-off machine.
D-Coder 9y ago
"...all of these genes have been vetted by millions of years of evolution, so we know they're rock solid." You haven't talked with my knees recently, have you.
eli_gottlieb 9y ago
>This is definitely true, but all of these genes have been vetted by millions of years of evolution, so we know they're rock solid. Evolution does not vet for anything except population-level viability. Once upon a time, our population bottlenecked. The return of large-scale genetic diversity is normal for an animal species, especially one that has spread to practically every environment on the planet. Also, evolution is not a prescriptive standard. Oy.

logfromblammo 9y ago

Certain breeds of dog get hip dysplasia. Dalmations go deaf. Molosser breeds often have respiratory issues, particularly pugs. This has not stopped people from breeding dogs. Natural selection will be out the window. It will be replaced entirely by intentional selection. We will certainly see new diseases rooted in human vanity and hubris, and they will become business opportunities for surgeons and pharmacists, just as our natural and lifestyle ailments have become moneymaking industries. So the great-grandchildren of people that were gifted by their parents with then-fashionable gene mutations will have all new reasons to pay for health care. And Sylvester McMonkey McBean simply unveils his star-off machine.

D-Coder 9y ago

"...all of these genes have been vetted by millions of years of evolution, so we know they're rock solid." You haven't talked with my knees recently, have you.

eli_gottlieb 9y ago

>This is definitely true, but all of these genes have been vetted by millions of years of evolution, so we know they're rock solid. Evolution does not vet for anything except population-level viability. Once upon a time, our population bottlenecked. The return of large-scale genetic diversity is normal for an animal species, especially one that has spread to practically every environment on the planet. Also, evolution is not a prescriptive standard. Oy.