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I would think if your technology is advanced enough to send a spaceship for a 1000 years in space, you should be able to manipulate the human genome to avoid "i
by jmnicolas 13y ago
I would think if your technology is advanced enough to send a spaceship for a 1000 years in space, you should be able to manipulate the human genome to avoid "inbred" diseases.
First let's start by going back to the moon or even Mars ...
- maxerickson 13y agoWe have the technology now to get a long ways towards manipulating the genome to avoid disease, just combine an extensive screening program with in vitro fertilization. It would be massively expensive (and of course would only work for genetic diseases that we understand). I guess it would also be a controversial endeavor.
- flatline 13y agoI would argue that we know a lot more about the physics and engineering required to build a generational ship than we do about the biology to cure rare genetic diseases.
- jmnicolas 13y agoI would bet that if global warming doesn't destroy us before, we will master inbreeding before we're able to go for a 1000 years space exploration tour.
- dasmoth 13y agoYou don't necessarily need a perfect understanding of biology to do this. Just avoiding homozygotes for any rare genetic variant you don't have flagged in your database as well-understood will go a long way to avoiding in-breeding issues.