Science advances at breakneck speed these days. We read reports about new inventions and technologies almost daily. And people sometimes stop and ask: are we sure we should invent it? Isn’t it dangerous to ourselves?
Not so long there was a lot of discussion about AI. How we should proceed cautiously, or we might lose control over it and maybe even risk our own existence by inventing one. But Computer Science is not the only field with such dangerous ideas.
John Oliver decided to summarize, in his own unique way, what we now know about Gene Editing. We have a technology available which allows us to rewrite genes of a living organism. We can even create new genes which can be passed from parents to their child. But isn’t it a bit dangerous? Is it without any risk?
I hope you'll enjoy his presentation :)
Questions:
1. Did you know how advanced are we in the field of Gene Editing?
2. Do you think it can be used for the good of the human race?
3. What dangers do you see in its use?
Not so long there was a lot of discussion about AI. How we should proceed cautiously, or we might lose control over it and maybe even risk our own existence by inventing one. But Computer Science is not the only field with such dangerous ideas.
John Oliver decided to summarize, in his own unique way, what we now know about Gene Editing. We have a technology available which allows us to rewrite genes of a living organism. We can even create new genes which can be passed from parents to their child. But isn’t it a bit dangerous? Is it without any risk?
I hope you'll enjoy his presentation :)
Questions:
1. Did you know how advanced are we in the field of Gene Editing?
2. Do you think it can be used for the good of the human race?
3. What dangers do you see in its use?
Comments
The main problem with the gene editing would be the same: people do not know, when to stop. Our perception is limited with our senses that nature gave us. If we modify them, the outcome will not be that easy to predict. And, of course, we will aim for making everyone happy, effectively dooming us.
I think that for sure it can be used for the good of the human race because I see my fiancée working on it but also there are some disadvantages. Some people may have bad intentions and use gene editing in bad ways, only for their purposes.
I think the main problem with gene editing is: we can't really predict all the consequences of even small changes. Like in this example with a mice - we might end up killing some other animals down the food chain if we are not careful.
We can use genetic modification to help human beings, one of the ways that can come to human help is the numerous treatment of congenital defects, which can be completely eradicated by genetic modification.
but one of the disadvantage of Gene Editing is : This system, if needs to be used for patient therapies and cells need to be reintroduced into the patients, requires cells to be actively dividing ( the only way to have enough edited cells to heal the patient). what happens is that as consequence of the editing or the manufacturing that occurs before and after the editing, cells my stop dividing or dividing at very low rate. So that the number will be insufficient to out compete the malignant cells.
2. I think that if it is intelligently used, it makes sense.
3.If it hits unauthorized hands, this threat is always there. In total, the mother of nature does not like how we interferes
in her area
Very high risk of using these technologies in human genes. It seems to me very dangerous, and it can have unpleasant consequences.
Naturally adancements in that field can be very beneficial if we gain ability to modify our genes to remove for example some genetically passed diseases then why not ?
As with everything that touches genes long term evaluations are almost impossible, that not only slows our research but also makes us more hesitant in going forward. We have to keep in mind that its dangerous from social and political perspective since no ordinary "human" could go "check" their genes at wish its not simple to do so so any malicious modifications would come without our knowledge.
Yes I know, becouse I'm interested in this topic. I wrote article about it for the next week.
2. Do you think it can be used for the good of the human race?
Ofcourse, it's great tool to treat a lot of genetic diseases, for which currently there are not other treatments.
3. What dangers do you see in its use?
It enables creation "super soldiers". It also is unethical for me to editing children before born, for example editing color of eyes or increase of IQ. It can looks like children creation.