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A comment on First gene-edited babies claimed in China. Parent comment

Re:First gene-edited babies claimed in China by carlmr on Monday November 26, 2018 @03:34AM (#18531934)
>improved memory is absolutely something evolution would select for in primates, especially humans.

What if it makes people more scared, because they can remember past experiences better. This could lead to less procreation and thus inverse selection pressure.

Only because a trait is superficially good it doesn't mean nature would select for it.

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Re:First gene-edited babies claimed in China by Erlich_Bachman on Monday November 26, 2018 @05:13AM (#18532299)
Why would a memory enhancing drug only increase rememberance of negative memories and not the positive and loving ones? Such people could become more active, motivated and procreating more because life seemed more motivating for them because they remembered all the good from the past also?
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Re:First gene-edited babies claimed in China by carlmr on Monday November 26, 2018 @05:53AM (#18532424)
That's not the point, I was just giving an example. It could have millions of effects and whether evolutionary selection would favor these genes is not trivial.
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Re:First gene-edited babies claimed in China by ArchTypical on Monday November 26, 2018 @05:26PM (#18537415)
> Why would a memory enhancing drug only increase rememberance of negative memories and not the positive and loving ones?

There's a psychological phenomenon:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias

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Re:First gene-edited babies claimed in China by buboard on Monday November 26, 2018 @05:19AM (#18532314)
it would increase both, but negative ones can have bad, debilitating consequences in life (cue PTSD, phobias)
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