Do-it-yourself genetics - Scary?

[Lord T Hawkeye]

Originally Posted by Illun

And several people in southern states have died from them. The killer bees have been fought back through considerable effort, that's why you're still waiting. The concern is who dies while things sort themselves out, not that we're all going to die. It's worth pointing out, though, that some scenarios do lead to us all dying, and it's because people are cautious about new developments that we've not gone down more dangerous paths.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

People die from a lot of things but if we screamed crisis about every one, panicking would be our full time jobs. At least there was some cause to worry about killer bees. This one is just plain silly. No deaths, no near deaths, no evidence of any disaster whatsoever. The "threat" is built on "off the top of my head" theories with nothing to back them up.

Remember when Greenpeace convinced the government of Zambia and several other countries to turn down millions of tons of donated food just because it was genetically engineered?

Yeah, when they say "there's nothing to fear but fear itself," that's the sort of thing they were talking about.

The threat has been demonstrated in France, Russia, and Japan, with nations doing the research and a lack of caution releasing the results. It's not an "off the top of my head" theory, but a demonstrated problem that this is exacerbating.

[Prophet Tenebrae]

Most of those against genetically engineered crops are actually motivated primarily by less altruistic notions than the well being of their fellow man.

Which is to say - they see GM as a manifestation of corporate globalisation (in the case of Greenpeace and similar) and they'd rather see people starve than let GM - controlled as it is by a relatively small number of multinational concerns that are pretty much run by Hitler in suits as far as these people are concerned - proliferate.

Speaking of Godwin's law - Eugenics is still inexorably (and wrongly) linked to Hitler and a good number of people still start foaming at the mouth when you suggest that MAYBE a baby that isn't going to drop dead of cystic fibrosis or be in some way mentally retarded BECAUSE DAMNIT! GOD WANTS YOU TO SUFFER!

I personally love that. Not quite on a level with forcing people with terminal/degenerative illnesses to live a life that they deem not worth living because the invisible man in the sky demand that THEY SUFFER! Actually, I'm not sure I've ever seen any justification of that from the Bible beyond the whole "playing God" rationale... and there's a fairly strong correlation between that type of person and the type of person who goes to the prison to wave a big placard saying "Fry the SOB!" But this is something of a tangent.

Bottom line - much of the knee jerk "this is bad" is generated because Hollywood hates science and the trope "science = bad" is one that has been busy since the industrial revolution.

Chances of someone in their garage creating the Armageddon plague are probably about the same as them finding the secret to eternal youth.

I maintain that there is a neo-luddite movement which is rather more sinister than just people who don't want to get a mobile phone and that there is precious little to do with interest in the dangers of technology and very much to do with an exploitation of instinctive fear of the new for the forwarding of an anti-globalisation agenda.

Not that the other side is much better... but hey, big corporations give us shiny shinys - what does the opposite side of the coin offer, other than stagnation, anarchy and going back to living in caves?

[OhZone]

Well, I think the stakes are higher when it comes to the high tech stuff compared to earlier days. I mean, nuke power and genetics could kill almost everything. A new catapult or crossbow a millenia ago could never kill everybody. You could always hide from that. You can't necessarily hide from the high tech stuff today. I'm no ludite. We just need to be more careful when the stakes are higher.

[kingofheights]

Originally Posted by Prophet Tenebrae

Most of those against genetically engineered crops are actually motivated primarily by less altruistic notions than the well being of their fellow man.

Which is to say - they see GM as a manifestation of corporate globalisation (in the case of Greenpeace and similar) and they'd rather see people starve than let GM - controlled as it is by a relatively small number of multinational concerns that are pretty much run by Hitler in suits as far as these people are concerned - proliferate.

Speaking of Godwin's law - Eugenics is still inexorably (and wrongly) linked to Hitler and a good number of people still start foaming at the mouth when you suggest that MAYBE a baby that isn't going to drop dead of cystic fibrosis or be in some way mentally retarded BECAUSE DAMNIT! GOD WANTS YOU TO SUFFER!

I personally love that. Not quite on a level with forcing people with terminal/degenerative illnesses to live a life that they deem not worth living because the invisible man in the sky demand that THEY SUFFER! Actually, I'm not sure I've ever seen any justification of that from the Bible beyond the whole "playing God" rationale... and there's a fairly strong correlation between that type of person and the type of person who goes to the prison to wave a big placard saying "Fry the SOB!" But this is something of a tangent.

Bottom line - much of the knee jerk "this is bad" is generated because Hollywood hates science and the trope "science = bad" is one that has been busy since the industrial revolution.

Chances of someone in their garage creating the Armageddon plague are probably about the same as them finding the secret to eternal youth.

I maintain that there is a neo-luddite movement which is rather more sinister than just people who don't want to get a mobile phone and that there is precious little to do with interest in the dangers of technology and very much to do with an exploitation of instinctive fear of the new for the forwarding of an anti-globalisation agenda.

Not that the other side is much better... but hey, big corporations give us shiny shinys - what does the opposite side of the coin offer, other than stagnation, anarchy and going back to living in caves?

Ah but they aren't talking medical their talking enhancement and that's not good.