Is anyone else mildly excited about the CRISPR/Cas9, Gene Editing Tool?
I'll give it a 80% chance of making life on Earth even more wonderful and a 20% chance of causing a zombie apocalypse.
It's a chance worth taking if I can get rid of a hand full of redneck genes that still bother me.
Yes I'm excited about CRISPER. I've read about it and attended a Free Thought meeting explaining how CRISPER works. I still don't have a good understanding of how it's accomplished. These guys are seriously smart!! That said I'm down for anything that increases the intelligence of humanity as long as they're secular and pro humanity.
Ha, I didn’t realize that there’s a gene for red-neckness.
Maybe there’s something I don’t know about it but I really don’t understand how you are going to get rid of all those genes, because every cell in your body has those DNA strands. You might prepare a sperm cell to be free from red-neckness so that your children won’t suffer from that malady. Be careful though. There are certain advantages to red-neckness. It can be fun huntin’ possums and makin’ shine, and periodic stays in jail can be stimulating. Maybe the world NEEDS a few rednecks.
An alternative might be to study up on epigenetics. Apparently we can change our genetics just through conscious choices of behavior, if I understand it correctly.
Also, look at this link that tnorman posted:
Maybe there’s no such thing as a gene.
@Mortal
EPIGENETICS
The last link is the most comprehensive. There’s no pseudoscience involved here. Also that link nautilus.us (The End Of Genes as we Know Them) cites professional scientific studies.
Evolution as we learned it in school is being revised. There is nothing scientific about clinging to old dogmatic ideas in the face of new evidence.
Upvoted for naming a totally rational predictor of zombie apocalypse.
If it took us 40 or 50 years to figure out that things like talcum powder and asbestos were giving us cancer, imagine how long it will take to find out that messing with our genomes is messing up the human race--and how badly those changes will affect us!