“mosquitoes may have killed nearly half of the 108 billion humans who have ever lived“
There is no way that the consequences of wiping these shits off the earth would be worse than that.
Crispr, now.
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/27/opinion/sunday/mosquitoes-malaria-zika-history.amp.html
Also...they'll eventually lead to the return of the dinosaur...as we all know.
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it harms humans.
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It seems so obvious. The examples below are not directly related to the Crispr genetic manipulation cases, but they highlight the same problems...
It turns out that the cystic fibrosis that the people wanted to eliminate had been selected for during medieval times and made people immune to yersinia pestis (the cause of bubonic plague). Without that gene (which usually does not manifest with full lethal penetrance), our world population would be vulnerable to a super plaque even today should yersinia develop resistance to present treatments (which usually happens with widespread use of meds).
It turns out Sickle Cell Anemia Gene proffered resistance to malaria in Northern Africa, and again, the less severe manifestations of SSA are much more common. Thus again, there has been a natural development of genetic traits and diversity to protect mankind from a vulnerability, and there were scientists who wished to eradicate that diversity. Vulnerability lies in homogeneity.
There are multiple examples in man made attempts at introduction of invasive species where the introduced species caused more problems than the problem it was meant to solve, and that “problem” species turned out to have unknown roles.
Thus, my points:
1) It is the ultimate in human hubris to assume that we have all knowledge and information at this time to be able to safely make the determination that eliminating such a fundamental aspect of nature will not have other far reaching consequences.
God doesn’t make junk. Even mosquitoes have roles, and it might be more than the critical natural population control issue. And there are other species population control and roles that the mosquitoes play with them., and being a basic part of the food chain, etc..
2). The weaponization potential for Crispr is terrifying, and it’s coming whether we want it or not because it’s so simple that a college kid with a basic lab could do it with a little online study.
Just a couple of problematic species. The others can thrive.
They have killed half of all people who ever lived. Amazing.
Species go extinct all the time, and nature adapts. It’s weird to me to think that wiping out a few species of mosquitoes would bring everything down, or even make any noticeable difference.
Fuck the mosquito. Crispr! Crispr!
there.
I understand. Really, I do. But I worry about a false sense of security over the specificity of the manipulation. i also worry about the unknown roles of even Aedes.
You make the point that species go extinct all of the time. Yes....but they do so under the natural forces of selection. This is not that.
(I feel like Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park here).
their foolish, myopic actions? And, I mean, really, what could possibly go wrong with this scheme, anyways?
I get what you are saying, but there are times when the benefits outweigh the potential cost. And in this case, the outweighing is clear.
Fun fact: Aedes Aegypti means “unpleasant Egyptian.” I like that.
If giraffes had killed half of all people who ever lived, I promise you there would be no more giraffes.
Wipe the out.
It seems much more likely that they farted too much causing global warming, which ultimately caused their demise, don'tcha think?
Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39142941
Shall we end rats?
we'd have to resort to a one-party system and the entire country would be marginalized.
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