The Near Future of Genetically Engineered Children...

[MizMotown]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/...an-youd-think/

[Jimaz]

We have become as gods.

[Zacha341]

Uhh, yeah. The outworking of this will not be good. Yet we're so smart, knowing what is best.

Frontal lobotomies were best treatment during their time too!

But of course we are smarter, ............. now.

[Honky Tonk]

Uhh, yeah. The outworking of this will not be good. Yet we're so smart, knowing what is best.

Frontal lobotomies were best treatment during their time too!

But of course we are smarter, ............. now.

Not after those frontal lobotomies we're not.

[Zacha341]

Opps! Oh yeah!! Don't forget the moral lobotomy to boot!

[Jimaz]

From what I've read, this CRISPR technology is going to happen without regard to morality. That's because it's [[surprisingly) inexpensive to do, meaning it can be done in more numerous, smaller [[even clandestine?) labs anywhere in the world — beyond the jurisdiction of any one nation.

One thing I didn't see mentioned in this article was the remarkable possibility of editing telomeres, which raises the possibility of no less than immortality. [[Granted, hard to believe.)

Imagine having a face-to-face conversation with someone who had a face-to-face conversation with Abraham Lincoln! That kind of experience might eventually become normal if this technology pans out.

For millennia the human race has manipulated bloodlines through breeding, grafting, etc., but those were always probabilistic, uncertain techniques. This is the first time we've been able to specify genetic changes directly, with precision targeting as predicted by Blade Runner.

This development is an evolutionary game-changer on a cosmic scale. This is the first known instance of life consciously, directly, redefining life.

This is beyond the scale of even the invention of the atomic bomb.