Re:Update: CRISPR
by chillacy on Sunday March 12, 2017 @08:53PM
(#13854373)
It's not like these things people have done are exactly safe and side-effect free already. People have:
* Made entire species extinct through hunting and deforestation
* As a side effect of industrialization, dumped enough CO2 to change the climate and will probably keep it up
* Domesticated multiple other species into being dependent on us, from crops to farm animals to dogs
* Started work on AI and machines which might even replace us one day
Genetic modification isn't a one-way street to destruction as much as AI is, or industrialization.
Also regarding perpetuating life: the one thing life has in common is that it perpetuates itself. We'd be a shitty species if we perpetuated machines or microbes instead of ourselves.
* Made entire species extinct through hunting and deforestation
* As a side effect of industrialization, dumped enough CO2 to change the climate and will probably keep it up
* Domesticated multiple other species into being dependent on us, from crops to farm animals to dogs
* Started work on AI and machines which might even replace us one day
Genetic modification isn't a one-way street to destruction as much as AI is, or industrialization.
Also regarding perpetuating life: the one thing life has in common is that it perpetuates itself. We'd be a shitty species if we perpetuated machines or microbes instead of ourselves.