for a long time i have felt this was a serious problem. However, it didn't seem to me that they would get this far, this soon. Someone's bound to take the nex

for a long time i have felt this was a serious problem. However, it didn't seem to me that they would get this far, this soon. Someone's bound to take the next step. The philosophical hunger for other sentient species, the egotistical ambition to be a creator, and the pervasive desire to tinker will lead to progressively more and more amoral research projects, in whatever timeframe the researchers believe the public will accept. It starts with experimental fetuses. It will ultimately mean research subjects. It starts with a few genes here and there. It will ultimately mean trying to fully unlock what genes lead to what traits via transplanting them. It presently merely means the monkey would be more intelligent.ultimately, however, they would be capable of and likely willing to experiment with human-animal chimeras. They will tell us this will expand our sources of surrugate organ donors. They will tell us this will help us understand our own genome. What they wont do is accept moral culpability for academic consequences. The research will be proliferated and each laboratory will go a little bit further. Eventually we will see genetic engineering taken too far. And it's not just research on the genetic origins of mammal traits. We'll see scientists who want to create synthetic life. Who may want to modify nature so that it is more efficient, which is to say, loses the survival bonus conferred by millions of years of evolution in favor of a streamlined metabolism oriented to anthropocene conditions. They will want to engineer species and to engineer species extinction. This will likely eventually mean a loss of species diversity and the destruction of entire ecological systems, every time it happens, sooner or later. Today it is mosquitos. Tomorrow the corporate morality may serve a different, but equally wealthy and powerful authority, one with less scruples and a more pragmatic, selfish perspective. Tomorrow it may be flies, or even wild rabbits. Whatever exists to the detriment of man, man will eventually justify the destruction of. Whatever exists to the benefit of man, eventually, the temptation of power and influence may yet bring about, as undavoidably and unstoppably as death and taxes. And scientists, no matter how ethical they are today about publishing their research findings and their methods, will eventually make their learning known as it becomes commonplace. Each new landmark finding will become wikipedia articles at the same time the competitors discover the effect, because nobody wants to miss out on the fame and fortune. Any attempt to censor, classify, or restrict the publication of research that might prove dangerous will ultimately only delay, not prevent the opening of pandoras box. The era of custom-tailored biological weapons of viral, fungal, bacterial, and parasitical origins, capable of things far more terrifying than anything cobbled up in an imaginary video game, for sale to, or even created by, various governments, seperationist movements, and terrorist organizations- even down to single individuals- is not a fantasy. The experts are concerned, but can do nothing. The wheel of progress turns, no matter who stands with their shoulder against it. We have, maybe a decade, maybe two. Eventually the kind of people you do not want conceiving of genocidal and maniacal schemes will have reasonable materials, a great swath of research materials, and a plentitude of futuristic methods in their arsenal. They'll make the kind of pathogen that makes smallpox, ebola, and anthrax look like harmless little playthings for drunken grad students. It is not a matter of if- it is merely a matter of when. All of these things are merely a matter of when, not if. It may soon be time for the butlerian revolution of the genome. For a luddism of the soul. I will stand by and watch only so long. If required, I plan to take a side. I will likely be siding with those who would burn these hallowed halls of academie to the ground, regardless of what great remorse and lacrimonious wailing it produces in my soul. I hope you understand. It would be better, of course, if we could just move all this research offworld where it would be safe and we could control what portions of it enter our realm via a worldwide watchdog network based on the moon. We shall see. It shall certainly come in our lifetimes.