Comment on I have lost faith in almost *EVERY* vaccine
iamtanmay@wolfballs.com 2 years agoGene modification tech is not bad on its own. Humankind has been doing it via hybridisation since the start of agriculture.
However, unchecked corporate greed combined with this tech, like any other powerful tech, is destructive to everyone.
I feel that maybe the solution to all these problems lies in reforming patents. If we had a good way to reward inventions, while making it open source, companies could not black box things for consumers.
It maybe a better alternative than regulation, which just gets corrupted by BigCorp over time, and is a blocker to new innovation.
Spotted_Lady@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
It is just that gene splicing is far more invasive than selective breeding.
And I agree that corporate greed is a bad thing and might be what will cause excellent germ lines to be lost forever. I hate that whole thing about pollen drift causing farmers to lose their land because big ag will use that as an excuse to steal their land from them.
iamtanmay@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
'Invasive' isn't the word I would choose. Rather 'efficient'/'powerful'/'dangerous'. The analogy would be coal vs nuclear. Efficiency/danger are 6 orders of magnitude apart (3M kilos coal per kilo U235).
Gene splicing should be measured in how fast it can create change. What would take a farmer several years naturally can be done in days in a lab. I would guess 3 to 5 orders of magnitude more efficient artificially (Practically its slower. Every trial needs to be grown many times to get reliable results)
Is this good or bad ? Depends on who pulls the trigger.
Humans worst enemy has always been humans.
As technology accelerates exponentially to singularity, its certain we will get wiped out. By malice or mistake.
Just look at WIV created Cov19. Breakthrough upon viral breakthrough, from small GOF additions to humanised mouse lungs, till voila !
Curtains