So I got a little inspired by Endyss' post and I'm going to start a thread about an issue that's not very big but important to me.

Can anyone tell me why scientists shouldn't be allowed to experiment with recombinant DNA, stem cells, transgenics, synthetic biological systems, etc.? There is an enormous potential for genetic engineering to do so much good in the world, but it's been held back (mainly by pro-lifers and hippie luddites).

Examples include but are not limited to:
GM crops - by increasing the yield and resilience of crops we can easily make enough food to fatally strike world hunger
Transgenic animals - on top of being novelty pets, new animal breeds may be and have been engineered to perform highly utilitarian tasks. which leads to..
Nanomedecine - Nanites have a biological counterpart; synthetic bacterium and virii engineered to heal you.


I understand stem cell research draws a lot of fire from pro-lifers, but there is another topic for that.

Politics cause starvation.  There is enough food to feed everybody.  Politics prevent it.

The reason that there is not a lot of bioengineering is that we do not know the long term effects.  We are infants in this field and no where near the level of technology and development to do it right.....yet.

We really do not know as much as we think we do.  We have barely scratched the surface on how the weather works on this planet and know next to nothing compared to how complex a living organism works, let alone make one and set it loose on the world to see what happens.  I do not have a problem with making micro-machines, but I have a HUGE problem with us making them cause we can, not cause we know it is best.

ah, i forgot the whole "long term effects" thing. now i remember that scaring a bunch of people when the issue hit congress a few years back.

Wow, I am so encouraged to expand my views and share ideas.

Thank you for your mature discussion contributions.

Personally I don't think you'll ever be able to prevent research. It will happen one way or another, legally or illegally, known to the public or hidden away in some military base. Technological advancement is a force of nature. All species have some level of adaptability and the advancement of our technology to deal with problems is the modern manifestation of that for us.

Granted, it scares the shit out of me what some of these technologies can lead to. Even Star Trek has demonstrated the dangers of some of these lines of technology.

We're quick approaching the point where we'll be able to manipulate the DNA of unborn children and tailor them to be "better", leading to eugenics. Is that bad? Not inherently. It could accomplish many good things, but it could also be used to create super-soldiers or a race of beings who look down upon "normals".

Nanobot technology could be used for much the same thing; making humans "better". But it could also be used as a basis for incredibly deadly weapons. Imagine a man-made, technological, airborne pathogen designed to target and cause cancer in people with only certain traits? But at the same time the technology could be used to cure cancer.

Personally I think we should be putting a lot more effort into space technologies. The more we advance technologies that can be used to kill each other, the more susceptible the planet becomes to some radical accident or misuse of the technology. Having even a self-sufficient moon colony could ensure the survival of the species if the worst happens on Earth. If we made it to colonizing in another solar system we could accidentally blow up our entire sun and the human race could survive. We're just way too vulnerable as a species being stuck on a planet that we're becoming more and more likely to destroy.

Don't laugh when you see the problems they face in sci-fi shows. We're starting down many of those same roads, ourselves.

Moon colonies should be limited to Spaceship staging facilities and mining facilities. The moon isn't very suitable for normal habitats for many reasons (on top of it being completely desolate and mainly reliant on earth for supplies): Only the moon's north pole receives constant sunlight. This makes heating and solar power anywhere else a huge issue. No atmosphere means vulnerability to meteors and radiation, although radiation protection is easily attainable, albeit a bit cumbersome. I suppose you could make a vivarium (Thank you Ozymandias) in the north pole but There's simply not that much space on the moon to make it a very prominent population center. Not to mention there's not much to look at when you go outside (Earthrise, Sun, Grey hills)

NASA does want to colonize the moon but they're also interested in Orbital Colonies, which, IMO, are a lot more promising and altogether cooler. Look up Gerard K O'Neill, he had some pretty mindblowing ideas for space colonies. For instance, he pretty much invented the "Ring Colony" (Or torus colony), similar to what you see in Halo.

I still haven't played that.. I have no idea why, I just got a new (used) 360.

If I ever became rich I'd probably start a philanthropic organization to help the untouchables attain education, cybernization, genetic preferability, whatever. I know it sounds stupid but hear me out. A lot of whats wrong with the world would be fixed if humanity achieved true physical and intellectual equality. Being brought up in an safe environment and taught well will make future generations a lot more productive than the current. I hope there are enough people out there who want better for humanity rather than for themselves, and are objected to organized force.

I think before we start going into space we should fix the problems of our own kind. We've got plenty of time before the earth becomes a desert and plenty of ways to prevent this global warming problem.

I believe the first step is to get better and predicting outcomes and planning for contingencies.  I talking on much bigger terms than we are currently used to doing.  Everything in this field should have global considerations and look at centuries of use, not a decade at most.  There is still a lot of prep work, IMHO, that needs to be done.  We should first fully, or as close as we can get, how the entire planet works BEFORE we are so arrogant to think that we can "improve it".  There is still MILES of research that can be done with what we already have now, let alone making up stuff.