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From an engineering perspective, when trying to explore a dynamic, you simplify the experiment to reduce extraneous variables. So along these lines, I’d be more

From an engineering perspective, when trying to explore a dynamic, you simplify the experiment to reduce extraneous variables. So along these lines, I’d be more interested in following experiments like these on say sea slugs. Give them a proto-amygdala/hippocampus or limbic system and test them for increased memory, adaptive behavior etc. This choice of monkey experiment seems to be more sensation and less investigation, on the spectrum.

s1artibartfast 6y ago
unfortunately, the further you move generically from the human, the more extraneous variables you introduce and the lower the relevance of any result. There is a reason drugs and experiments are performed on primates. Any result you saw in say a sea slug would provide no insight into the human function. The ideal experiment would be to delete the gene from a human, but this is unethical for obvious reasons.
- coryrc 6y ago
  We support women knowingly giving birth to trisomy fetuses. We're in trolley problem territory here.
- riazrizvi 6y ago
  I should have also said, I think it is premature to attempt genetic engineering of human brains for medical benefit. Intuitively I believe we are decades behind the amount of conceptual development and experimental validation we need to do to get a proper understanding of genetic brain engineering. So I think the ethics is spot on here, it's ethically wrong IMO because we don't know what we are doing. Ethically I don't see a problem messing with sea slugs, though no doubt some people might.
  - s1artibartfast 6y ago
    As far as I know, no scientist has attempted the genetic modification of human brains for medical benefit so it seems that nearly the whole world is aligned ethically. The whole world generally aligned that testing on non-human primates is OK if the fetus is not brought to term. There are companies that offer human embryo screening based on intelligence, but this is more selection that modification.

s1artibartfast 6y ago

unfortunately, the further you move generically from the human, the more extraneous variables you introduce and the lower the relevance of any result. There is a reason drugs and experiments are performed on primates. Any result you saw in say a sea slug would provide no insight into the human function. The ideal experiment would be to delete the gene from a human, but this is unethical for obvious reasons.

coryrc 6y ago
We support women knowingly giving birth to trisomy fetuses. We're in trolley problem territory here.
riazrizvi 6y ago
I should have also said, I think it is premature to attempt genetic engineering of human brains for medical benefit. Intuitively I believe we are decades behind the amount of conceptual development and experimental validation we need to do to get a proper understanding of genetic brain engineering. So I think the ethics is spot on here, it's ethically wrong IMO because we don't know what we are doing. Ethically I don't see a problem messing with sea slugs, though no doubt some people might.
- s1artibartfast 6y ago
  As far as I know, no scientist has attempted the genetic modification of human brains for medical benefit so it seems that nearly the whole world is aligned ethically. The whole world generally aligned that testing on non-human primates is OK if the fetus is not brought to term. There are companies that offer human embryo screening based on intelligence, but this is more selection that modification.