So It Finally Happened---> First Genetic Engineered Human Born in China

[FordGT90Concept]

Another important direct quote:

He reportedly went a step further, altering the genome in early stage embryos, which would affect sperm and eggs—the germline—and make the change heritable. Such work is effectively barred in the United States and many other countries. Whether it fits within China’s regulatory environment is not clear.

The idea of gene editing to eliminate diseases like HIV is more appealing to me than vaccination...if it works and has fewer downsides. Natural immunity is preferable to artificially triggered immunity.

 

[Divide Overflow]

I actually like sensible application of this technology. Editing out weakness to disease from our genes would be a positive step forward in human evolution.

 

[bug]

You happy now froggy? Your frog-man dream is actually quite possible now. Provide you are willing to raise a frog-human hybrid baby from embryo of course.

Actually, no, that dream isn't more possible than it was before.
This is genetic editing (if true, so far it's unconfirmed). Not engineering.
The key point here is genetic editing does not produce synthetic DNA. It also doesn't mix different DNA strands together. All it does is it activates or deactivates some traits on a given DNA strand. It's still pretty complex to do, but let's keep things in perspective.

 

[moproblems99]

Universal Soldier, glad I am friends with Mr. Van Damme. Only Mr. Norris stands in our way.

I'm sorry but this should NOT happen. Anything that can be used for good will be used for evil with worse consequences.

Edit: Added Not.

Actually, no, that dream isn't more possible than it was before.

You must be mistaken. I am pretty sure I saw on TV that they could perform dolphinplasty and negroplasty. Pretty sure we are quite far ahead.

 

[R-T-B]

You happy now froggy? Your frog-man dream is actually quite possible now. Provide you are willing to raise a frog-human hybrid baby from embryo of course.

I would do this. It can’t be much worse than Sea Monkeys, and way cooler.

 

[Vario]

the age of the vat grown winklevoss is upon us

 

[droopyRO]

The West could sanction China severely, further collapsing their economy in retribution.

A billion something, starving people with a huge land army and nukes, what could go wrong ?

 

[Steevo]

More than I'd like to admit. And I agree (even though I dislike the sex stuff). Die nameless!

Is that a gallon of PCP?

Sex Robot was a great without being over the top, but that was a lot of the point of the show, to be a little over the top when exploring fears to out them in a humourous light, to dig out insecurities and allow us to examine them in the light of day and fun instead of repressing and hiding them from others. To show us all that we are human, and yes, that was just water on my hands.

 

[Bones]

Let's stop judging the little tyke and introduce ourselves.
Oh wait, there he is now!

 

[Solaris17]

Let's stop judging the little tyke and introduce ourselves.
Oh wait, there he is now!

View attachment 111349

 

[FordGT90Concept]

A billion something, starving people with a huge land army and nukes, what could go wrong ?

Revolution.

 

[Bones]

@Solaris17: How fitting is it his name happens to be Khan?
Maybe not quite Chinese but close enough.

 

[Gorstak]

hmm, might order a few copies of some girls I know...uhm...for studying...

 

[droopyRO]

Revolution.

Don't think so. More like The Bear and The Dragon by Tom Clancy, if you read it.
PS:

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Spoiler: Off Topic

That video made my point for me. China is quickly turning into North Korea and the Chinese people don't like it. Sprinkle poverty on top because of tariffs and sanctions, you got a perfect storm of revolution brewing. It might take a few decades though.

 

[xkm1948]

Spoiler: Off Topic

That video made my point for me. China is quickly turning into North Korea and the Chinese people don't like it. Sprinkle poverty on top because of tariffs and sanctions, you got a perfect storm of revolution brewing. It might take a few decades though.

Nah, the west may be collapsing first due to the insane wave of extreme liberalism and open border politics

 

[moproblems99]

Nah, we are going to destroy our planet via war or pollution first.

 

[Gorstak]

Well, things are being done in favor of liberalism. You couldn't imagine black people being where they are now a hundred years ago, same will happen with all conservatives in another hundred or so. They will simply die out, probably with a few minor groups creating some sort of secret societies. China has their people under an iron fist, and people must prove their loyalty to china to be in good standing and leave the country when they see fit. In a few hundred years, you basically wont have anyone judging anyone based on whatever, although that might seem hard to imagine at this point. In 500 years, china may become mostly made of black people, although it really seems like looking at the crystal ball at this point. Basically, all nations will have all sorts of races, all sorts of religious beleifs, and the straight white male will become a dying breed. People will be able to resequence their genes and they will be able to get 3d printed parts of their bodies and replace whatever went wrong with theirs. On the dark side, I doubt many will be able to afford treatment, power will remain in the hands of fistful of people.

 

[neatfeatguy]

I actually like sensible application of this technology. Editing out weakness to disease from our genes would be a positive step forward in human evolution.

Wouldn't it be a bitch if they found some way to edit out all these nasty diseases that humans are weak against....thinking that they finally found a way to make humans "super" and not die from diseases......only to find out later that what was once a common, non-life threatening thing quickly kills....like athlete's foot and before they can figure it all out the human species is killed off the face of the planet.

 

[Gorstak]

Wouldn't it be a bitch if they found some way to edit out all these nasty diseases that humans are weak against....thinking that they finally found a way to make humans "super" and not die from diseases......only to find out later that what was once a common, non-life threatening thing quickly kills....like athlete's foot and before they can figure it all out the human species is killed off the face of the planet.

You are correct. It may happen. You also seem to express fear of the unknown, which humans beat times and again throughout history. All it takes is education. Or a leap of faith.

 

[bug]

Wouldn't it be a bitch if they found some way to edit out all these nasty diseases that humans are weak against....thinking that they finally found a way to make humans "super" and not die from diseases......only to find out later that what was once a common, non-life threatening thing quickly kills....like athlete's foot and before they can figure it all out the human species is killed off the face of the planet.

Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. You can root out all the diseases you want, but the more DNA replicates, the more likely it is to mutate. Unless you're lucky enough to end up an X-Man, that means cancer.

 

[RichF]

This scares me because it will be only available to the "elite", so there will become even larger divides in society that there already are.

The distance between the wealthiest and the lowest is extreme and has been for thousands of years. Cleopatra wasn't building pyramids. Jeff Bezos doesn't have to pick through landfill piles for scrap metal.

This has the potential to be amazing, for medical reasons especially. I mean we can potentially eliminate diseases and improve lives with this technology. But what I really do not want is 'designer babies'. Where do we draw the line with 'playing God' ?

Designer babies are fine as long as the people doing the designing are rational. If they aren't, one ends up with things like cats that can't breathe because their noses have been bred away. Unfortunately, human fashion tends to take things to such extremes. That's why female anorexia is considered beautiful on the runway.

However, objectively, a designer baby is the best option for having a baby. A parent would be able to, for instance, avoid having a serial killer as a child, by designing the frontal lobes to fully function. Why would anyone expect a woman to give bone calcium and do all of the other sacrifices to bear and raise a child, only to have to roll the dice on having a child who wants to stab her? That's insanity, frankly.

There is also massive unfairness that degrades the life quality of so many people, like the unfairness caused by beautyism. The worst consequence of having more beautiful people is that beauty will be less of an advantage.

Conformity, of course, is a drawback. Besides the desire to pursue freakishness (the aforementioned pet breeding and model anorexia), there is also the very strong desire to produce assembly line kids. It's already a fact that red-haired men are barred by most sperm banks in the USA, on the basis that there isn't enough demand for red-haired kids. But, hopefully there will still be enough cultural difference to keep some diversity. In the UK right now, red-haired men are the most in demand.

 

[neatfeatguy]

Conformity, of course, is a drawback. Besides the desire to pursue freakishness (the aforementioned pet breeding and model anorexia), there is also the very strong desire to produce assembly line kids. It's already a fact that red-haired men are barred by most sperm banks in the USA, on the basis that there isn't enough demand for red-haired kids. But, hopefully there will still be enough cultural difference to keep some diversity. In the UK right now, red-haired men are the most in demand.

Those people are dumb then. Redheads are borderline SUPERHEROS!

I'm a superhero! But the findings would explain why I hate the dentist when they always used Novocaine on me. It never numbed me enough and when I had 6 different teeth pulled as a kid for the goodness sake of braces over a 4 year span it always hurt like a bitch when the dentist would twist and twist the teeth and then yank them out.

 

[Vayra86]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-46368731

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/11/china-crispr-babies/576784/

This isn't going to end well for him. China has created a climate where these things are encouraged for all the wrong reasons, and now the world's got its eyes on that, and this man will be the first scapegoat.

Ethical concerns aside, there is a good reason he's the first, we don't want to do this because we have no idea what the long term implications are going to be on these designer babies.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Unauthorized by the university he was working for and his results have not been verified. I'd call it activism.