Two billion genetically modified mosquitos are about to be released in the US

bgr.com

31 points·andrewfromx··19 comments

What could possibli go wrong?

That is a legitimate question that people have very seriously studied. What do you think could go wrong, exactly?

We have accidentally caused thousands of species to go extinct. We might as well make a deadly, replaceable species go extinct on purpose.

It’s all about balance. If someone had killed Hitler, would something worse had taken his place? Or, how about in Australia where a fence was constructed to keep dingos out of the south. But dingos are a predator to kangaroos so the kangaroo population increased and now they are overpopulated. Butterfly effect kind of thing.

> If someone had killed Hitler, would something worse had taken his place?

Unlike Hitler, there are countless mosquitoes. That enabled scientists to do controlled experiments. (Something the Australians didn't do with the dingo fencing, either.) I don't have a strong opinion on this measure. But before supporting or criticizing it, I would at least glance at that evidence.

But these mosquitoes are:

1) invasive in North America, so they already took something native's place;

2) not going to be eradicated;

3) not the only mosquitoes in their habitats

On top of that, the testing of this technique has gone well multiple times in the past.

What exactly are your qualifications for the large-scale policing of nature?

I don't have any, which I why I don't do it and can't even vote on it.

There are only two options left now:

- play incompetent god

- play competent god

I would prefer the latter.

They did it last year. It worked. Nothing went wrong. That’s why they’re doing it again this year.

Experts in five years: Huh... that's the first thing that's ever gone wrong...

Are they ill-tempered?

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