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Why genetic engineering is advantageous for humankind
In science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs. Francis Darwin, son of Charles Darwin
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Content:
Why genetic engineering is a necessity for mankind to survive
Is genetic engineering good business? Should you go for it?
Technology and ideology versus human mind and human genetic structure
Will genetic
engineering heal diseases or create new ones?
Is genetically
engineered food good ?
Moral choices everyday - that’s human life
Genetic engineering and religion
Homo sapiens is
100 000
years old
Evolution is dead
Colonization of space
Genetic engineering will make immortality possible
Genetic engineering futurology
All that we are is the result of what we have thought. Buddha
The Dodo never had a chance. He seems to have been invented for the sole purpose of becoming extinct and that was all he was good for.
Will Cuppy
Nobody doubts that before year 2020 computing power of computers will exceed many times complexity and possibilities of human brain. Computers evolve with rampant speed and nothing can stop this progress.
We, i.e. human race, have no choice: we have to evolve or to become extinct. We can evolve in two ways however. There is no third way.
The first possibility is to evolve by incorporation of cyber technologies into our body: alpha chip for our brain, and cybernetic extensions or replacements for other body parts. However in this way we will become effectively cyborgs; to higher and higher degree cybernetic, non-biological, organisms. This process can end with total transfer of our consciousness to the cyberspace and we will then get rid of biological bodies altogether! If you are against genetic engineering then be aware that this destiny, i.e. becoming cyborgs, is the only alternative to genetic engineering.
The second possibility, which is more humane, than becoming cyborgs, is to change our biological structure with means of genetic engineering to keep up with development of computers. We can use genetic engineering to make our children a better, more developed organisms; we can clone ourselves and make some genetic improvements in genetic code of these clones; or last, not least, we can change our very own genetic structure 'on the fly', i.e. of our own biological body during lifetime. If you are criticizing genetic engineering then you are cutting off the only humane way for the mankind out of regress.
NINOTCHKA: Why should you carry other people’s bags?
PORTER: Well, that’s my business, Madame.
NINOTCHKA: That’s no business. That’s social injustice.
PORTER: That depends on the tip.
Charles Brackett
Money is
the most important thing in the world. This world. Nowadays there are plenty of industries,
which, with higher or lower risk allow humans to get rich. Yes, we, humans are
physical beings, and we do care about material world.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? The Bible
Unfortunately only very small minority of whole mankind understands that genetic engineering is the most important technology ever. Therefore now there are many jobs, which offer much bigger, faster money. Examples: lawyers, Internet industry, stock market players, computer science. There is lately particularly big impact on Internet hype.
The fashion of this world passeth away. The Bible
Venture
capitalists, who tens years ago yet went massively to
biotechnology companies, now tend to prefer Internet start-ups. It is not very good for
us as mankind, as race, as species. But this is reality. If you consider moving
yourself into genetic engineering industry you should be really deeply convinced
to do so, to avoid regret in future.
The ceaseless labour of your life is to build the house of death. Montaigne (Michel Eyquem de Montaigne)
No, it is not that good business to consider education and working in this field only on sole assumption of getting rich quickly, or getting big money easily. There is plenty of various work in genetic engineering – not necessarily directly related to the subject. Yes, we encourage you to go into genetic engineering, but only if you really want it, if you understand how important this technology is, and if you are ready to see more than just money in it - only if you are heartfelt about it.
The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion. Washington Irving
Why I present here such a rigid view about genetic engineering as a job for a living? Because genetic engineering is more than it seems: it is fundamental breakthrough in history of our species and dedication is desirable. This is individual related point of view. From business point of view genetic engineering can be good business but is more risky than Internet thing.
Is man an ape or an angel? Now I am on the side of the angels. Benjamin Disraeli
Human
being consists of two entities: physical body and self-conscious mind. Physical
body of human being is a carbon based life form, which uses genetic code as a
prescription of structure and function – the human genetic design. Genetic
code is stored in linear DNA sequences consisting of combinations of four
elements: G, A, T and C. These sequences look like this: GGTTCACCAGTGATTACATATCCCAT. Human mind
is a neural network running on nerve cells of brain. Physical body is
hardware
and the mind is software.
Almost all aspects of life are engineered at the molecular level, and without understanding molecules we can only have a very sketchy understanding of life itself. Francis Crick
Technology
of human race has been developing with huge speed but ideology not so fast.
Knowledge, skills and consciousness of reality has been developing quickly but
human physical construction (genetic design, human genome) has not changed
meaningfully for latest over 50 000 years. While mankind digests over and over
more or less the same ideas related to ethics, morality and other ideologies,
the technology develops itself with rampant speed. Human hardware (the physical
body) is not changing at all and therefore also human software (mind) has
significant development limitations.
There are one hundred and ninety-three living species of monkeys and apes. One hundred and ninety-two of them are covered with hair. The exception is a naked ape self-named Homo sapiens. Desmond Morris
It took
billions of years of evolution on planet earth to produce life forms equipped
with self-conscious mind - intelligence. However, since rate of development of
technologies lately is so huge and particularly computer technologies are being developed
so
quickly it would be too naive to assume that it will take more than 100 years
for non-biological machines to develop self-conscious mind: artificial
intelligence. In this context we can observe what happens: if we will not
improve our hardware, non-human intelligence will overtake us in terms of sheer
performance - it is irrelevant if an intelligence is artificial or natural.
At any rate, I am convinced that He [God] does not play dice. Albert Einstein
Many of illnesses from which human beings suffer are of genetic origins, in the sense that they are ‘pre-programmed’ in genetic code. Many of such genetic illnesses are caused by erroneous genetic code of parents, and some further mutations occur during a lifetime of given human being. In this sense evolution literally throws dices in the natural process of creation of each human individual. Einstein was wrong. While driving a car we rely on our skills and concentration and we leave nothing to sheer coincidence. But when it comes to our genetic structure we literally behave like a blind and deaf person crossing highway with big traffic on it.
Physician, heal thyself. The Bible
What if
we would be able to remove from our genetic code, or from genetic code of our
children, all those places that generate illnesses? We would take genetic
scissors, cut out all those fragments, and eventually put there repaired or
improved ones. We could then have very healthy populations and we would
avoid many, many illnesses, illnesses that we either inherit from our parents or
we spontaneously mutate into.
War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.
Georges Clemenceau
On the
other hand military industries are working on designer viruses that can kill us.
And in the situation where we have on one side population, which is not
developing itself genetically, and on another side genetically improved
biological weapons; it is obvious that there is big danger, that these weapons
can ultimately destroy us. Again, since we cannot prevent development of
biological weapons, because it is unrealistic wishful thinking, we should direct ourselves at
genetic engineering to help us coping with them by improving our genetic code:
both on the fly by gene therapy and a priori in our children to come.
Life is a sexually transmitted disease Anonymous
Yes, genetic engineering is the ultimate answer to all illnesses we ever had, either inherited ones or environment dependent. Chief weapon to fight them back, and this time for good.
Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral.
( Food comes first, then morals. )
Bertolt Brecht
There is
over 6 billions of human beings on planet earth. Almost 1 billion of them suffer from
hunger. Introduction of genetically engineered food on mass scale could solve the
problem of hunger on this planet once and forever.
Some
people say that genetically engineered food can cause illnesses in us, humans.
Why could it be so? Because apparently only parts of the code is being changed
and overall influence of these changes, cannot be, at current state of the
technology, predicted. Of course heavy duty testing of such designer food can
eliminate chances of bad influences. But since we cannot, at time being,
understand all influences there is always some danger.
Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law. Oliver Goldsmith
So, for
time being genetically engineered food seems to be a bit too dangerous for
developed countries – because we don’t wholly understand how these changes
influence us, we don’t know of all possible side effects. However for third
world countries, where hunger rules, such considerations are of secondary
importance – heavy testing seems to be enough.
In
future, when we as mankind, will fully understand the influences of the changes
in genetically engineered food on our organisms, such food will be perfectly
healthy and good for everybody.
Moralität ist Heerden-Instinkt in
Einzelnen.
( Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual. )
Friedrich Nietzsche
Should
we intervene in our genetic code? Shouldn’t we allow nature to do the work?
No! Because on one side we wish to heal all illnesses, AIDS and cancer included,
and on second side many among us have unfriendly feelings towards genetic
engineering. This ambivalence can have in long-term dangerous consequences for
whole mankind. We cannot prevent computer technology to develop exponentially, we cannot forbid military to develop designer viruses, so we
have to offer something against it: genetically engineered
humans. Improved,
healthier. Therefore empty criticism and stopping genetic experiments is equally
morally doubtful. Of course, we
cannot achieve everything right now, but in mid term, when we will better
understand how it all works – certainly because nothing is impossible.
Sequencing of whole human genetic code (genome), i.e. analyzing what is the full
sequence of all those basic elements and putting them into one file on hard disk
of some computer, will be completed in year 2001. And it is just a
beginning.
Without doubt the greatest injury of all was done by basing morals on myth. For, sooner or later, myth is recognized for what it is, and disappears. Then morality loses the foundation on which it has been built. Lord Samuel
Yes, sooner or later we will come to the point of understanding, that set of moral values which blindly condemns genetic engineering is devastating for us and is slowing down our improvement. How many of your friends died from AIDS or cancer? How many big people died out from stupid illnesses, which were genetically conditioned. If you wish science to heal it all, then don't condemn genetic engineering and let it go please.
There’s no reason to bring religion into it. I think we ought to have as great a regard for religion as we can, so as to keep it out of as many things as possible. Sean O’Casey
Religion
is about beliefs, about awareness what is good and what is bad, religion is
about God. Genetic engineering is about basic truth of life: that genetic code,
in cooperation with environment, determines what we are. Do we, humans, play God
by further and further developing such powerful technology as genetic
engineering? No, humans are not God, humans are physical, limited beings only.
And if someone thinks that genetic engineering is about playing God, that
someone should say the same about medical doctors who heal their patients. The
choice is simple. But the choice is not between God and genetic
engineering. The
choice is between passive, pacifist surrender equal to letting nature throw
dices with us, and between active fight for our health and for survival of
mankind.
No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible, until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought. John Stuart Mill
There is
much place for God in genetic engineering. But not in literal sense as some
want: nobody can deny millions and millions of years of evolution. As mentioned
above, we, humans, consist of physical body and of software of neural networks
running in our brains. While our physical body some time comes to total
destruction, it could very be that this software, which constitutes our mind,
keeps on running elsewhere in form of body-detached soul.
Humans
practice genetic engineering in form of selective breeding of animals and plants
for thousands and thousands of years. No religion says that selective breeding
is bad or even unnatural. In the same way genetic engineering based on tweaking
of genetic code should not be seen as bad thing, as a sin.
Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. Jiddu Krishnamurti
On the other hand we cannot allow ourselves, that religion would obstruct our development and would diminish our chances to survive.
More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly. Woody Allen
Millions
years ago dinosaurs died out. The reason was some kind of global catastrophe.
Now they only persist in form of birds, they survived in limited form. Without
this catastrophe it would be dinosaurs, that would rule planet Earth. Thanks to
this catastrophe, mammals in general, and finally Homo sapiens in particular
obtained the chance to become winners.
I don’t mind your being killed, but I object to your being taken prisoner. Kitchener
We, Homo
sapiens, have carried out total holocaust of species of Neanderthals. We killed
them all. Neanderthals are losers; we at least for time being, are winners. Now
we are the highest life form on this planet. But if we will be naive, arrogant
enough, to stop genetic engineering from helping our personal, genetic,
development, another species, would it be some artificial intelligence, would it
be aliens, would it be spontaneous mutants, will definitely destroy us.
Taking a very gloomy view of the future of the human race, let us suppose that it can only expect to survive for two thousand million years longer, a period about equal to the past age of the earth. Then, regarded as a being destined to live for three-score years and ten, humanity, although it has been born in a house seventy years old, is itself only three days old. James Jeans
Just
imagine: humans, i.e. species of Homo sapiens, has been formed about 100 000
years ago. But most important breakthrough developments in several technologies
has taken place just in latest 3000 years! Alone computer science and genetic
engineering are younger than 100 years. We have to, at last, understand that
without genetic engineering we will share fate of dinosaurs (at best) or
Neanderthals (at worst). Maximally fast development of genetic
engineering technologies is for mankind a matter of sheer survival.
Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he’s been given. But up to now he hasn’t been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life’s become extinct, the climate’s ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier every day. Anton Chekhov
The distinction between natural and artificial environment blurs. Influence of mankind on fauna and flora of planet Earth is already so great that we cannot speak of pure nature anymore. It is thinkable that thanks to genetic engineering we can construct plants which would help us recover deserts for life, remove oil pollution of oceans. We possibly could engineer organisms to clean our air, water and earth from all the industrial pollutions.
I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection. Charles Darwin
Nowadays thanks to advancements of medicine humans live longer. The longer we live the weaker is influence of natural selection on next generations. Previously, thanks to natural selection some diseases would cease to exist because all infected would die not having enough time to produce equally infected offspring. We need to realize that only genetic engineering is way out of this deadlock.
...if one does not have wild dreams of achievement, there is no spur even to get the dishes washed. One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being. May Sartonvelection
We, mankind, dream for a long time to live in extraterrestrial space. In fact even in solar system there are planets that could be easily colonized - like planet Mars. Thanks to genetic engineering it will be possible to invent or rather to design biological microorganisms, which will digest current atmosphere of Mars and convert it into mixture through which we can breathe. Forget big atmosphere generators or other machinery: biological organisms, especially designed for this purpose by us, humans, will do the work!
Genetic engineering will also solve problem of long time space journeys - like these to other solar systems. And not only by extending our lifespan (longevity), but also by implementing in our genome mechanisms of hibernation - already used by some animals. Just we will take some genes from those animals, overlap them with our genes and in this way we will be able to travel to other solar systems and hibernate for hundreds or even thousands of years without the need to use some fancy technological equipment.
I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work ... I want to achieve it through not dying. Woody Allen
Animals on planet Earth, humans included, are mortal because nature needs death and birth cycle to bring new mutations into genetic structure of organisms. Without death and without possibility to exchange pieces of genetic code among individual organisms by making sex, there would be no possibility to cope with changing environment and it would mean extinction of life. Dead is preprogrammed in genetic code, what means that nature needs it.
If we will take this equation:
life = death/birth cycle + changes in genetic code by mixing it by means of sexual intercourse over several generations
and we apply genetic engineering we can transform it into:
immortality = life - death/birth cycle + changes in genetic code by means of genetic engineering over lifetime
We can therefore observe, that the constant of nature requiring changes in genetic code to adapt life to the environment, will be behaved if we would apply genetic engineering!
The empires of the future are the empires of the mind. Winston Churchill
The
really huge developments in genetic engineering will take place in 21st century
and later. Huge development of computer technologies will make it possible.
Below you will find some speculations on the subject. Don’t treat them as
certain truths, but rather as more or less nonlinear predictions.
Tomorrow we shall sail again on the vast ocean. Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
At the
beginning we can expect some mild
developments. Genetic scanners are one of them. Genetic scanners will not only
be able to analyze some, limited, number of characteristics of genetic code of
given individual, but they will be able to scan, i.e. to sequence, whole human
genetic code of given individual in matter of very short time, maybe hours,
maybe seconds. Since whole genetic code of one particular human takes only 3 GB
of place in cyberspace, the range of applications will be very wide. Detection
and prevention of possible genetically related illnesses, identification of
individuals, better genetic design of children – to name just a few. Genetic
scanners in connection with software analysis tools for genetic code will bring
first bigger breakthrough.
I have seen the future; and it works. Lincoln Steffens
Genomorphek.
GENetic MORPHing tEKnology. We call it so but no matter the name. This will be
this technology, or rather whole complex of technologies that will have the
biggest impact. Not only genetic code of newborn children will be modified, but
also during our lifetime it will be possible to morph, i.e. continuously change
into new form, our genetic structure. It is already now possible to make changes in
genetic code of humans but still it is not possible to grasp, to understand, or
even to simulate in computers, whole set of interrelations and to do this in
fully successful way. Thanks to computer aided genetic design and certain
software tools, yet to be developed, genomorphek will become reality, at latest
in 22nd century. We can see some beginnings of genomorphek today in form of gene
therapy.
We soon learn that there is nothing mysterious or supernatural in the case, but that all proceeds from the usual propensity of mankind towards the marvellous, and that, though this inclination may at intervals receive a check from sense and learning, it can never be thoroughly extirpated from human nature. David Hume
We could
add here more examples, but we would like to leave it to authors of
science-fiction stories. One is for certain: if no bigger disaster will happen
in 21st century (like World War III, or ecological disaster, or elimination of
humans by artificial intelligence) then future generations of humans to come
will not be like we are. They will be different, much different from us. If not
in superficial appearance then certainly in intelligence and physical constitution.
* * *
All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it. Samuel Butler
:-)
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URL: http://www.geneticengineering.org/isgood/default.htm
Version: 0004. Last update: 19 November 2000.
Copyright 2000 by Edvard Kinitz ( EdvardKinitz@aol.com
). All
rights reserved.