Hacker News Reader

Comment by hutzlibu | Hacker News Reader

Well, if human gene editing really would work, than china (and others) would not only select for intellect, but also for obedience. Which is scary.

Apart from that I do believe, that in the future human gene editing makes sense. Once it is actually understood. (until then volunteers are allright with me, but experimenting with babys ... is a bit off)

Because we are successfully eliminating natural selection in various ways. But evolving works naturally through selection. Degeneration would be the long term effect, unless we find other ways. And improving our genes as we see fit ... seems to be a solution.

View on HN

There was recently a story about a "Paean to Alpha Centauri", so I'll leave you with an appropriate quote:

"My gift to industry is the genetically engineered worker, or Genejack. Specially designed for labor, the Genejack's muscles and nerves are ideal for his task, and the cerebral cortex has been atrophied so that he can desire nothing except to perform his duties. Tyranny, you say? How can you tyrannize someone who cannot feel pain?"

- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Essays on Mind and Matter"

I have no idea how you'd manufacture both a loyal and genius breed - what/whom are they loyal to?

The whole first chapter of Brave New World comes to mind as well...

"Bokanovsky's Process"... x-ray, and alcohol to clones of the "worker class" to make them slow and stupid to do your bidding.

https://www.huxley.net/bnw/one.html

Yes. I am a little worried about genetic engineering in the very very long term, as it seems to make eusocial organization possible, which I find pretty abhorrent.

In the short term though, it seems like a good idea. Regardless, in a multipolar world we don’t have much choice in the matter.

Why do you find eusociality abhorrent?

I think most of us find it uncomfortable, if not abhorrent. Do we really want to become the Borg and give up our individuality?

genetically coded conformism is against freedom

>>Well, if human gene editing really would work, than china (and others) would not only select for intellect, but also for obedience. Which is scary.

Generational planning...who will be at the helm 20+ years later? "The Party"? Maybe if it was a Medieval Kingdom, but even then you'd wonder how that would affect the fighting spirit of the people. Might commit national suicide

> Once it is actually understood.

This will probably happen in the distant future. Most of the genetic research this decade will be driven by national competition. it's an arms race

Any evidence that we are successfully eliminating natural selection? A huge amount of selection is for things that aren't immediately obvious, or more subtle: the immune system, beauty, personality traits the other sex finds attractive, etc.

And ... suicide and self-destructive behavior etc. I know. I did not say, we eliminated selectors already, but working towards it.

The range of selectors we can actually affect is extremely limited. There's a vast range of selectors we can't affect. In the grand scheme of things, we've hardly made a dent. That's my point.

To back this up, at least this paper claims that the idea that natural selection is being referred inoperative in modern human populations is widely rejected by evolutionary biologists.[1] Changes in human society have actually accelerated selection for certain types of traits that we know of. For example, genes that help people deal with our increasingly unhealthy diet may be strongly selected for.

1. https://www.pnas.org/content/107/suppl_1/1787

Reply on news.ycombinator.com