4 ms·

You are correct but I think you are discounting the scalability of this approach and tech. I view this more as a proof of concept. In many years, it will likely

You are correct but I think you are discounting the scalability of this approach and tech. I view this more as a proof of concept. In many years, it will likely be trivial to expand this to all mosquito species relatively effortlessly.

ceejayoz 4y ago
> In many years, it will likely be trivial to expand this to all mosquito species relatively effortlessly. The vast majority of mosquito species don't bite humans, so there's zero reason to do so.
- kickout 4y ago
  Yes, but how does that contradict my statement? We would go after the biting species first and species that somehow are causing humans 'harm'. Don't think anyone wants to wipe out 800 species on a whim. IF the tool scales, we can selectively apply it
  - Tagbert 4y ago
    “expand this to all mosquito species” Why would you state that? That is explicitly not the goal of this effort and there is no justification for taking that approach. It sounds like fear mongering.
    - kickout 4y ago
      I'm confused. I'm not fear-mongering at all. I'm on the opposite side of fear--optimism. This is akin to a proof of concept with this mosquito species. It is likely the learnings will translate to other mosquito species. I have not stated I _want_ to eradicate this or the other species, merely that we theoretically _could_
      - shkkmo 4y ago
        "Theoretically could" is practically useless without providing a reasonable route to actually happening. The US could theoretically nuke ever major city in Canada, bit that possibility is ingored for almost all practical purposes (and the purposes for which it is not ignored look at the reasons why it would happen.) Eliminating a species of mostuito is expensive and additional effort breeding and releasing mosquito's for each species you want to eliminate will always require additional work and effort. Why would we expend that effort to eliminate a species that doesn't bite us?
        kickout 4y ago
        Disease vector is the primary reason at the moment
        shkkmo 4y ago
        Mosquitos that don't bite us aren't a disease vector for us... which is why there isn't a compelling reasons to wipeout those species.
elif 4y ago
That is already the case https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=mosquito+genetic+engineering&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart#d=gs_qabs&t=1650463955830&u=%23p%3DmizhvjzLBy0J https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=mosquito+genetic+engine...
BurningFrog 4y ago
The genuinely frightening possibility is diseases engineered to infect/kill only people of a certain race or family.
- kickout 4y ago
  Yes, genome engineering is a tool that can be used for evil, no different than most other tools. I am confident your worry would be easily detected and squashed if some lab were attempting such a dreadful thing.
- toomuchtodo 4y ago
  This has been a known vulnerability for some time. https://youtu.be/HKQDSgBHPfY https://youtu.be/HKQDSgBHPfY https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16349202 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16349202
pvaldes 4y ago
> will likely be trivial to expand this to all mosquito species relatively effortlessly. That would be a huge, irreversible, and catastrophic mistake. In the top list of most stupid things done by humans just to piss on the environmental sciences.

ceejayoz 4y ago

> In many years, it will likely be trivial to expand this to all mosquito species relatively effortlessly. The vast majority of mosquito species don't bite humans, so there's zero reason to do so.

kickout 4y ago
Yes, but how does that contradict my statement? We would go after the biting species first and species that somehow are causing humans 'harm'. Don't think anyone wants to wipe out 800 species on a whim. IF the tool scales, we can selectively apply it
- Tagbert 4y ago
  “expand this to all mosquito species” Why would you state that? That is explicitly not the goal of this effort and there is no justification for taking that approach. It sounds like fear mongering.
  - kickout 4y ago
    I'm confused. I'm not fear-mongering at all. I'm on the opposite side of fear--optimism. This is akin to a proof of concept with this mosquito species. It is likely the learnings will translate to other mosquito species. I have not stated I _want_ to eradicate this or the other species, merely that we theoretically _could_
    - shkkmo 4y ago
      "Theoretically could" is practically useless without providing a reasonable route to actually happening. The US could theoretically nuke ever major city in Canada, bit that possibility is ingored for almost all practical purposes (and the purposes for which it is not ignored look at the reasons why it would happen.) Eliminating a species of mostuito is expensive and additional effort breeding and releasing mosquito's for each species you want to eliminate will always require additional work and effort. Why would we expend that effort to eliminate a species that doesn't bite us?
      - kickout 4y ago
        Disease vector is the primary reason at the moment
        shkkmo 4y ago
        Mosquitos that don't bite us aren't a disease vector for us... which is why there isn't a compelling reasons to wipeout those species.

elif 4y ago

That is already the case https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=mosquito+genetic+engineering&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart#d=gs_qabs&t=1650463955830&u=%23p%3DmizhvjzLBy0J https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=mosquito+genetic+engine...

BurningFrog 4y ago

The genuinely frightening possibility is diseases engineered to infect/kill only people of a certain race or family.

kickout 4y ago
Yes, genome engineering is a tool that can be used for evil, no different than most other tools. I am confident your worry would be easily detected and squashed if some lab were attempting such a dreadful thing.
toomuchtodo 4y ago
This has been a known vulnerability for some time. https://youtu.be/HKQDSgBHPfY https://youtu.be/HKQDSgBHPfY https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16349202 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16349202

pvaldes 4y ago

> will likely be trivial to expand this to all mosquito species relatively effortlessly. That would be a huge, irreversible, and catastrophic mistake. In the top list of most stupid things done by humans just to piss on the environmental sciences.