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GWASes have shown that many strongly heritable things that we care about (height, heart attack risk, IQ) are hugely polygenetic, the result of the interaction o

GWASes have shown that many strongly heritable things that we care about (height, heart attack risk, IQ) are hugely polygenetic, the result of the interaction of thousands of genes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genome-wide_association_study#Results https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genome-wide_association_study#... CRISPR is too unreliable and has too many off target effects to move the needle on height. By the time you've made a hundred CRISPR edits to a single genome, you've shot the other chromosomes full of holes. It's only useful for taking out one or two genes, for someone who knows they carry a fatal genetic disease, but still wants to have kids. True designer babies will be done with genome synthesis.

dekhn 6y ago
What you're describing is basically science fiction, far in the future. We have no technology to do what you're describing, nobody is planning on "repairing thousands of genes" to increase somebody's height. I understand it's fun to speculate about this.
- sbierwagen 6y ago
  Factual statement: "We have no technology to do what you're describing" Correct. We can only assemble synthetic bacteria right now. Synthetic sperm is years away. Synthetic eggs are too complicated, I wonder if they'll ever be made. Synthetic embryos would be true sci-fi stuff, requiring heavy engineering and many breakthroughs. Emotional statement: "nobody is planning on" Human germline engineering inspires strong feelings. I'm sure that the advent of motorized vehicles would have inspired the same strong feelings in horses, if they could have understood what was about to happen to them. Nevertheless.
  - dekhn 6y ago
    Well, I used to plan on this stuff. I mean, it was my career path for 20+ years. Then, after learning a lot more about the field, I came to the conclusion that these sorts of aggressive ideas are far beyond what we can reasonably contemplate, and it generates unrealistic expectations in the lay public when we suggest it's possible. Genetic engineering for human treatments took a 20+ year hit because one guy died in a trial at UPenn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Gelsinger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Gelsinger After He Jenkiu, genetic engineering took another huge hit because an irresponsible person ignored all advice and did a crappy job at fixing susceptibility to HIV infection. This is not a "engines vs. horses argument". This is a "faster than light AI supership vs. horses argument".

dekhn 6y ago

What you're describing is basically science fiction, far in the future. We have no technology to do what you're describing, nobody is planning on "repairing thousands of genes" to increase somebody's height. I understand it's fun to speculate about this.

sbierwagen 6y ago
Factual statement: "We have no technology to do what you're describing" Correct. We can only assemble synthetic bacteria right now. Synthetic sperm is years away. Synthetic eggs are too complicated, I wonder if they'll ever be made. Synthetic embryos would be true sci-fi stuff, requiring heavy engineering and many breakthroughs. Emotional statement: "nobody is planning on" Human germline engineering inspires strong feelings. I'm sure that the advent of motorized vehicles would have inspired the same strong feelings in horses, if they could have understood what was about to happen to them. Nevertheless.
- dekhn 6y ago
  Well, I used to plan on this stuff. I mean, it was my career path for 20+ years. Then, after learning a lot more about the field, I came to the conclusion that these sorts of aggressive ideas are far beyond what we can reasonably contemplate, and it generates unrealistic expectations in the lay public when we suggest it's possible. Genetic engineering for human treatments took a 20+ year hit because one guy died in a trial at UPenn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Gelsinger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Gelsinger After He Jenkiu, genetic engineering took another huge hit because an irresponsible person ignored all advice and did a crappy job at fixing susceptibility to HIV infection. This is not a "engines vs. horses argument". This is a "faster than light AI supership vs. horses argument".