Thread: Genetic Engineering

So, if you could alter yourself to become faster or smarter would you? Better yet, if you could rebuild society and program them from birth to follow some ideal or religion would you?

Is it right to change what people are suppose to become into something better, something more desirable... Yes, it is. Then again... it is not.

Personally, I think it would be the best ending to the human world.

NO. When a person is born his or her intelligence is zero and so is their physical capacities. It comes with practice and their environment and how much they practice their bodies. Genetic engineering is a very risky process and I don't think it can work on humans since human body is very complex.

Is it right to change what people are suppose to become into something better, something more desirable... Yes, it is. Then again... it is not.

No no and no. It is better to leave the nature take it's course rather than to give up and go to the doctor and say "Hey, make me better by genetic engineering" It's not easy.

Originally Posted by LenMiyata

Genetic engineering of crops is actually one of the last great hopes to reduce pesticide use in commercial agriculture. If you really want to help reduce the poisoning of the environment, is the introduction of genetic engineered foods really such a bad thing...

Better yet, if you could rebuild society and program them from birth to follow some ideal or religion would you?

That's cloning.
Well, every species save their members of the group. Take animals - Apes or lions for example. When their family member is in danger, they come forward to help them out, don't they? Although I understand what you're trying to say. We have intelligence, but we should stay in our limits. Cloning has both good and bad sides.When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. So, natural births are safer than cloning ^_^If you clone someone / something, you're cutting out the clone's natural system of functioning. I mean, human body is the most complex system on this planet. Cloning a human might be harmful or disastrous XP

What about for medical reasons? Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't they genetically changing some crops to hold vaccines to some diseases. mass immunisation, easy as that. No more needles.

And do you really think that they will ever allow GE for other purposes? It's tough enough getting laws to use it for good things (like medical) let alone use it to enhance the human body.

So i'm not all against it, I can see it as a good thing as much as I can see it being a bad thing.

I wish I could've been on earlier while this was still hot...

But anyway, everything you all said seemed very thoughtful to the subject, yet it also seemed as though you were pulling stuff out of you bum (hehe).

First off, people should be happy with who they are, we should learn out limits and live with them. But we can't. Limits are there, taunting the egos of the egotistical, so they're broken and forgotten. We can travel space can't we?

I remember hearing this somewhere, "You are unique - just like everyone else." Does that count here? Bringing in the topic of everyone being special and how changing our genes would make everyone the same, but aren't we already the same? Unique, like the other six billion on the planet, well.. I can see it working both ways.

gwen, you raise a really fun question.

A while back, I read this really awesome article on futurism. Apparently, people are going to invent all this stuff, like robots, ones that can have conscious thought. They're trying to make a computer with the processing power of the average human brain. They don't have it down quite yet.

Anyway, in the future, we're going to be able to live until we're 100, and we'll be able to upload ourselves into cyberspace. Oh, and the fridge will be smart enough to know you ate that cheese cake when you weren't suppose to.

So, is living to 100 truly something good? Well, it's going to be the future, so you won't look to old and won't be limited in any way. But is that truly the kind of medical advancement you want gwen? No sickness, the elderly out painting the town red? Meh, it seems admirable, but kind of sad too.

pulled out of our bums eh, well you enjoy your controlled future where you don't get to decide what you like. As for everyone being the same already, I could've sworn the world was full of different people with different traits, but if you want everyone to be the same.......................

Genetic engineering a sure fire way of ruining a civilization. What if technology existed for humans to live for 120 years? Our civilization would have to radically change everything in order to deal with the increased length of working years. Overpopulation would become a terrible problem, oh did I mention that it would create a ravine between the rich and the poor?

Also, I don't think we have considered how this would affect crime. Crimes of jealousy and passion, especially at the onset of possible advents in this technology, would abound as people would kill their ex-wives who took their alliemony to pay for surgery to look like they were 21 to have dozens of new suitors while he worked to pay for it. What about the radical backlash against something of this nature? Bombings of these clinics would go on in the same way people bomb abortion clinics because of their "unnatural" slant to life.

Nothing about it says that it is a good idea.

What if everyone was the same though? Wouldn't quell the radical crimes that would surely ensue? Overpopulation could be readily taken care of. Didn't you read the post? People can upload themselves in cyberspace and never die, apparently. Now that part of the future, I disagree with. Immortality in any way is very displeasing to me.

Originally Posted by FLawEdmiNd

What if everyone was the same though? Wouldn't quell the radical crimes that would surely ensue? Overpopulation could be readily taken care of. Didn't you read the post? People can upload themselves in cyberspace and never die, apparently. Now that part of the future, I disagree with. Immortality in any way is very displeasing to me.

Uploading your consciousness onto teh intarwebs isn't really genetic engineering, so I didn't address that.

As for overpopulation, the only solution to that is to kill people to make space. Well, I suppose you could shoot all of the poor people into the sun, but that would kill them too. Fact of the matter is that doing something like that would only cause more problems than we need.

Besides, are you telling me that you want to be the same as everyone else?

That is your ideal reality?