On Thu, 2014-09-11 at 08:49 +0530, Udhay Shankar N wrote: > > Right on cue, here's Nancy Kress on a related topic: > > http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2014/09/guest-post-nancy-kress-on-why-she-writes-so-much-about-genetic-engineering/ > > Nancy Kress on Why She Writes So Much About Genetic Engineering
The lady worries about the wrong people. The problem with genetic engineering is not the people you trust - those people in clean white coats in shiny laboratories who are doing the good job. It is about how and when the "other" start genetic engineering - to use clichés for the standard hated "other" let me simply name Iran, Somalia, North Korea, the Taliban and ISIS. It used to be the communists. Let me use a history based analogy about what will happen: Time was when only a few people had guns. Those with guns could dominate and lord over those who did not have guns. But the world has moved on. Everyone has AK 47s now. And if you look at the detail on the ground, it is precisely because everyone has AK 47s (and RPGs and Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer) that some places in the world are an utter mess. Somalia, NoKo, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan. The best technology in the world insulates and restricts, but does not cure. It's too late. When the US ended WW2 with 2 nuclear bombs, short-sighted "strategists" thought that this would be the end of all wars. The shock of the USSR testing a bomb led to proliferation. Still it was believed that nuclear power would have peaceful applications - so more people got the tech. Today we have a caste system in place where access to nuclear tech is restricted - but it's simply not working. Genetic manipulation needs to be seen from this angle. The Good and positive" aspects are always highlighted to silence the naysayers and the pesiimists. Oh look at all the benefits of guns. No more pests. No more burglaries. No more armed robberies" "Oh look at all the benefits of nuclear tech Cancer cure, endless energy, all wars to end, space travel" Oh look at all the benefits of fertilizers Oh look at all the benefits of genetic engineering <write your own predictions here> shiv
