Re:107 Nobel laureates sign letter blasting Greenpeace over ...
by panic on Thursday June 30, 2016 @09:26PM
(#12013238)
You could make a similar argument about any technology: we don't fully understand nature, so messing with it is dangerous. Luckily we've come up with techniques of science and engineering that help us mitigate the danger. We can run experiments, do focused testing, build and validate models, and so on. Is there something unique about GMOs that would make these techniques not work? How do you feel about pharmaceuticals that often "play god" at a more fundamental biochemical level with even more poorly-understood mechanisms?
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Re:107 Nobel laureates sign letter blasting Greenpeace over ...
by tgb on Thursday June 30, 2016 @09:32PM
(#12013259)
I agree but also think that a self-replicating experiment is a different class of danger than a one-off experiment. If we get to self-replicating nanobots, I hope the level of caution there goes well beyond that of the Manhattan project.
Re:107 Nobel laureates sign letter blasting Greenpeace over ...
by mrep on Thursday June 30, 2016 @10:29PM
(#12013512)
> If we get to self-replicating nanobots, I hope the level of caution there goes well beyond that of the Manhattan project.
We already have those and they are called viruses and bacteria for which we have pretty good defenses against them.