A new world is beaconing upon us. Much like computers in 70s. We are in the real early phases of this technology and this would most probably make the world completely different from what it is now.

Mind you, this is just the beginning. First we would have all kinds of diseases being cured using this, 1. It would change the whole medical diagnostics industry to correctly diagnose the pathogen, 2. Then destroy the pathogen using DNA cutting 3. It would cure cancers of many kind by enabling the T-cells to fight the cancer cells effectively

Then we would start with reprogramming cells to do what we want. For instance, we can cure baldness, completely regenerate cardiac cells after heart attack.

However, it would not stop at this. We would have bio-machines which can capture carbon dioxide, generate medicines, make clothes/cotton and food. We would have bio solar cells. We would bio light bulbs which ingest light during the day and glow at night. We would have artificial meat produced using this technology. We would have carbohydrates produced using this. Plastic and sewage eating bacteria would be a reality soon.

Next 30-40 years is going to be biotechnology as last 30-40 were computing.

I am bullish on the tech, but don't forget about how swords have two edges...there are going to be some crazy new exploits in our biology this technology will be able to take advantage of. Slipping genetic information past immune sentinels is going to have some crazy downstream risks we are just beginning to fathom.

I watched a pretty good PBS-NOVA special on CRISPR recently that covered this.

It seems like the scientists interviewed (some of them leaders in CRISPR) were of the opinion that we should stay the hell away from editing the human germ line (not sure if I used the right term, but basically stuff that would be passed to offspring).

I'm not even just talking about CRISPR. mRNA-LNP is like a flash drive that bypasses anti-virus software. The opportunities are...dramatic.

The problem is that cat is out of the bag. There will be much more potentially dangerous stuff which will come out in future. There is no stopping it....like it or not

Blowing the other horn, as an engineer I can imagine sorts of mistakes that can be made while editing DNA. We don’t fully understand life yet, but already cutting it in pieces, for a good purpose as it may be

True, I've read stories where researchers have done analysis of the DNA after the use of CRISPR and found that parts other than the target had been affected.

But like all decisions, you weigh the good vs the bad and you make a decision. In many cases it will be the best choice by far. Additionally, the more we use it the more we will understand the down side and we can plan for it.

Yup, it has a down side but we'll be able to balance the good and bad parts. Techies love to focus on the good of technology but I think it's good to point out the bad as loud as possible so we can plan for it. The fact is that the genie is out of the bottle and it won't go back in. So CRISP is part of our future.

CRISPR is highly targetted AFAIK and read. Unintended effects will actually kill it or slow it down.

Out of the sudden, the sci-fi movies where the E.T.’s look like insects and their gadgets look biological are much more realistic.

Why would you manufacture anything if you can grow it? This’ll probably remove great deal of the maintenance too.