I find it seriously scary how 23andMe markets itself. Externally, they're a family company helping you understand your family history and equipping you to anti

I find it seriously scary how 23andMe markets itself. Externally, they're a family company helping you understand your family history and equipping you to anticipate health problems so you can prepare for them. Internally, in presentations to venture capitalists and in job interviews with engineers like me, the picture is quite different. They're building a genetic database and plotting world domination from a thousand different angles that most people could never have even imagined. This stuff is straight out of a dystopian sci-fi novel. 23andMe is very similar to Google in this regard. We never imagined Google would have so much access to data, we never thought of the consequences. Now Google wields an absolutely unfathomable level of power over everyone in the world, and all anybody can really do is trust them not to abuse it. And also trust that all future generations and governments that inherit Google will never abuse it. 23andMe is one of those companies, but we aren't just talking about your searches and communications, we're talking about genetics and humanity and life itself on a very fundamental level. The ethical and moral dilemmas haven't been brought to light yet in a meaningful way, but it's inevitable, and they're some seriously next-level moral dilemmas. Even for Silicon Valley.