"What to do bad today?.." - thinks the geneticist
Let's talk about genetic engineering. In the not too distant future, humanity is likely to regularly engineer everything from bacteria to the human genome, and even create completely new forms of life. There are prerequisites for this. But many of this (not without reason) fear and do not accept. Usually genetic engineering is called unnatural for humans, far from natural designs, a risky "game of God" …
Here is a familiar example of an outlet. Yes, an ordinary power outlet! Doesn't she scare anyone anymore?.. Although more than a hundred years ago, perhaps, she could. However, someone is using it to stick two fingers in there and get a shock. And someone - to warm the water. Switch on devices. Etc. What does it depend on? From the level of knowledge of a person and his responsibility.
And genetic experiments themselves are as old as life. After all, this is the engine of evolution itself!
From primordial mud to the teeming oceans of the Cambrian and the living world we know today, genetic mutation and sexual recombination have resulted in an unimaginable variety of creatures - deep sea monsters, fragile flowering plants, extremophiles, and great apes. And people deliberately carried out genetic experiments for a long time, observing living populations and using selection.
As a relatively new acquisition of evolution, we are afraid of the power that is concentrated in our hands, and the backlash against technology also makes sense as we see how the Earth changes due to our presence. Seen from space, the planet literally glows at night.
Often we ask ourselves the question: is the planet changing for the better? Doesn't the “crown of nature” - man - spoil it with his sometimes extravagant deeds?..
But the world outside of people has no moral assessments and judgments. Ancient volcanism radically reworked the Earth's atmosphere; the asteroid destroyed the dinosaurs; and if given the chance, animals would quickly recycle the environment and its resources.
Promotional video:
Even "natural" genetic selection is not ethical or even practical from an experimental standpoint. Changes take thousands or millions of years. Some animals are left with useless, rudimentary remnants of previous generations. Genetic diseases and living conditions lead to suffering, death and extinction of species.
Human genetic engineering, on the other hand, is not accidental at all. And this thought is both frightening and reassuring. There will be mistakes along the way, there will be malicious creations - certainly - but in general genetic research shares a common goal: to improve much in the life of humanity. And whether it will turn out to be “improved” depends only on the person, on his knowledge, skills, abilities and responsibility.
This could mean treating genetic diseases or reducing crop failures. It can also include fun or gibberish - like glowing bunnies - or perhaps creepy - like designer babies.
Will the result of our experiments with genetic engineering and other advanced technologies be good or bad? We do not know. A new Cambrian explosion awaits us, including in terms of a variety of opinions and results.
But when discussing the future, we are increasingly defining what is worth fighting for and what is worth giving up. We define borders that we would not like or could not cross …
A short video about DNA genetic engineering:
