Yesterday I watched a segment from 60 Minutes about CRISPR, which is a substance that can edit the genes. Here's the video - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/crispr-the-gene-editing-tool-revolutionizing-biomedical-research/.
I think that we don't understand the importance of this things. The reporter said that it will be able to "coat" the genome inside cells and make the needed edits.
Why do we need to edit genome in the first place?
The hereditary diseases, cancer, HIV are coming from the genome. The viruses or cancers make cells mutate in the wrong way. They are "tweaking" the genome.
So, now we need to get into the genome, place this substance over a particular section and make changes. This substance - CRISPR - can be programmed to locate a particular sequence of the genome and make the needed changes to that very section. It will not affect the other sections of genome.
What can it do?
The reporter said that the researchers are rolling out a smaller-scale test in order to try and cure the cancer in a group of people.
Yes, didn't get wrong. They are completely seriously talking about curing cancer.
I am not trying to say that it will work but the point is that they will be trying to cure it.
This clearly shows that they have some expectations that they might succeed. Will they or not is another question.
Ramifications
The report showed a lab, which is experimenting with altering the sperm and egg. Two sperms were taken from a male, who was suffering from a very bad heart disease that is passed through genes. One of the sperms was treated with CRISPR in order to "rectify" the mistake in the genes. the other was not.
Then the two sperms were used to fertilize the two eggs.
I didn't get it 100%, but I think the result was that the risk of having this diseases went down, significantly.
Playing God
Does this mean that the parents would be able to "order" the child that they want to get. Meaning, that they will be able to choose the color of eyes, the color of skin, muscle level, IQ level and other things.
The researchers say that we are very far away from this point. But, as far as I can see in their eyes, it's already feasible now, but the underlying mechanics and procedures need to be improved on.
The question as to who and why will delve into such nefarious activities is completely irrelevant. There's always some people who're looking to weaponized new tech.
Surprisingly, it's extremely easy to buy - and, probably, reverse engineer - CRISPR from the US-based labs that are developing it.
Naturally, since this thing can edit your genes "on the go", it would mean that it will be able to both make good changes, as well as bad changes.
Zombie apocalypse
I am not a very positive-outlook person in general. I believe in perseverance and money.
I am 32, I am not very successful and I have come to believe that I need 1 million dollars in order to feel successful. I will be working as a copywriter for the next 3 years and then I plan to roll out 2-3 online stores in Russia and US.
This is me. You might have a different set of goals and values. I have no problem with that.
However, we both are humans. This is what's common between us. The humans have been evolving in such a way as to ensure that we live long enough in order to mate. The nature doesn't care whether we like reading books or whether we are racist or not. What it cares about is making that we don't die until we've mated.
This means that we all have the same set of nature-given goals and values. We all want to live, we all want to mate and assure that our kids have a bright future, we all want to live in security.
Today, there's 7,5 billion people on this planet. All of these people have the same goals. But, for some reason, some of us are more successful in reaching them than others.
I believe that the main reason is the place where you live. If you live in Africa, it's harder to make 1 million dollars. It's easier to reach this goal in Russia. And it's much more easier to do that, if you were born in the US.
Can you change the place where you live? No, it's almost impossible. Because, it's not just about the physical locality where you were born, but also about the culture, education and language that you have.
So, Malthus said that there are limits as to the number of people that this plant can have. We don't want to hear this fact, because… Well, because, if we start heading this fact, then we need to start controlling birth rates. If you do that, it can get ugly, pretty fast.
If this thing - CRISPR - will help us cure all hereditary diseases, we might see increasing levels of resources consumption by the population, people having more kids, living longer, driving their cars more…
Although, today, we have the President who doesn't believe in the science behind the climate change, we - clever and educated people - understand that it's true. If don't do something now, right now, the planet might be doomed, because, for instance, the temperatures will go much higher, this will damage in some way the upper layers of the atmosphere and then the atmosphere will evaporate, which might have happened on Mars.
In the nutshell, the more people we have on this planet, the worst the existing population will have it.
The advent of AI and robots will make things much much worse, since almost all jobs will stop existing in 10-30 years.
That's why I am actively developing as a copywriter in crypto. This job is very specific, requires human approach and it deals with the industry that will grow - for sure - in the next decades.
Jobs in farming, fishing, teaching, driving, politics, medicine, clearing, nurturing - all these sectors will be completely robotized, one by one.
Will people who used to work there be pissed. Of course, they will. People who were squeezed from ground-digging profession by excavators were pissed off as well. But there's nothing to be done about it. This is how automation and robotization work.
The only thing that people can do is to take a preemptive strike by migrating - right now - in such fields as coding, blockchains, copywriting and several others that will not decimates by robotics.
I am sure that in 20 years, all the major surgeries will be done by the robots. Not even the surgical robots, but the nano-robots that will be working inside your body without any scars and actual operations. They will be cutting the tissue at the level of individual cells. Or they will be getting inside of the genome and tweaking it.
Then, we might find ourselves completely robotized, digitizing our consciousness. We won't need to physical bodies anymore…
What's your take on this one. Please share in the comments.