Quote:
Originally Posted by BillCosby
Designer kids anyone??
I believe & I am afraid all this & more is in store for our future........
Genes are now part of the patent process & we are essentially made up of products now owned by someone else.........
There are perhaps many up sides and many many more obvious down sides.. Going forward into the unknown I am afraid those down sides will multiply exponentially to create many problems we have not even begun to consider.....
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Chances are any serious genetic engineering of people will involve various methods of inserting genes into people who are already alive, rather than waiting for the un-engineered people to die off. However, here are some unquestionably good aspects of genetic engineering of people.
1: Implanting genes to code for vitamin A and vitamin C production as well as the remaining amino acids which the human body doesn't today produce. This would do away numerous ailments related to malnutrition.
2: A number of genes within the human population, which might've once been survival benefits, are now the source of medical conditions that are in many cases on the rise. Genes causing or contributing to obesity, diabetes, alzheimers, thousands of cancers and more obscure less known ailments.
3: The immune system. When a person is concieved they start with the genes that program immune cells which work against many diseases but those genes get clipped out before the immune system is up and running. imagine all those genes offering protection from the start. What's more, an evolutionary overhaul of the immune system so that it can take on diseases it hasn't encountered and protect the person from the first exposure.
Animals like sharks are unaffected by any disease and also don't get cancers naturally. This is partly due to how old the zoological subphylem Condritchys is, but we can leapfrog that process with genetic engineering rather than waiting a few hundred million years. And we can do even better once we know the way our genome operates in full.
4: Spaceflight and exposure to freefall or zero gee conditions causes the muscles begin to deteriorate and calcium is removed from the body. But with a little tweak here and there the body will know to maintain a certain physical condition regardless of gravity and, possibly, enhance the body when higher G-force conditions occur with increased frequency; launches or high G maneuvers in aircraft and spacecraft.
5: There's also the unanticipated events we could plan for. Suppose the human genome were augmented for life in environments previously too far above or below our reach. going to the ocean depths without having problems due to high pressure nor any when returning to the surface. Being able to ascend beyond the vertical limit of oxygen intake without need of conditioning, training or a supply of oxygen. Both of these possibilities allows us to live in places little else can survive in, so that we're not taxing the environments as greatly there.
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