Mr and Mrs Jones, what sort of a child may we design for you?

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The time may be approaching when humans will be able to influence our own evolution by re-designing our DNA. Do you think this will happen? If so, do you think it will be good or bad? How will it occur; who gets to play God?

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), May 15, 2001

Answers

Doc, we want a handsome blond boy who can run and jump like a black kid, who has an IQ of 150, who is genetically free of any chronic disease who has a sweet disposition so he will love and obey mumsie and poppy.

How much?

-- (Adolph@Der.Reichstag), May 15, 2001.


http://www.nanuq.com/ashleigh/lyrics/i/in_the_year_2525_ (exordium_terminus).html


In The Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)
Zager & Evans

In the year 2525
if man is still alive
if woman can survive
They may find

In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lie
Everything you think, do and say
Is in the pill you took today

In the year 4545
You ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes
You won't find a thing to chew
Nobody's gonna look at you

In the year 5555
Your arms hangin' limp at your sides
Your legs got nothin' to do
Some machine's doin' that for you

In the year 6565
You won't need no husband, won't need no wife
You'll pick your son, pick your daughter too
From the bottom of a long glass tube

In the year 7510
If God's a-coming, He oughta make it by then
Maybe He'll look around Himself and say
"Guess it's time for the judgement day"

In the year 8510
God is gonna shake His mighty head
He'll either say "I'm pleased where man has been"
Or tear it down, and start again

In the year 9595
I'm kinda wonderin' if man is gonna be alive
He's taken everything this old earth can give
And he ain't put back nothing

Now it's been ten thousand years
Man has cried a billion tears
For what, he never knew
Now man's reign is through

But through eternal night
The twinkling of starlight
So very far away
Maybe it's only yesterday





-- (Zager@nd.Evans), May 15, 2001.

I predicted this. We will soon have a genetically elite class and a genetically inferior class. The worker-class will cheerfully do all our scut work in exchange for room and board and a pat on the head.

-- (Aldous_Huxley@Brave.NewWorld), May 15, 2001.



-- (-@-.-), May 15, 2001.

There is absolutely no doubt it will happen, unless the course of civilization takes a sharp veer away from its current course.

"If so, do you think it will be good or bad?"

It will be messy. Very messy and haphazard. Some genetic diseases will be overcome. However, the existence of subtle interactions among genes will make it very likely that some new genetic diseases will be introduced through ignorance.

We should thank our lucky stars that genetic engineering of humans will be confined to a small percentage of the total population of Earth for many centuries to come, so the basic gene pool should still be there if we have to backtrack.

I am more worried about the species we engineer for commercial purposes. Cross-species DNA exchange is a fact of life. DNA sequences are hardy survivors. Mistakes are hard to avoid. Genetic engineering will have its triumphs, but it will also have its disasters, its Hoover Dam and its Johnstown Flood.

The allure of DNA is that it is the most powerful and adaptive force on earth. The feedback from our actions in the that field will return to us magnified, far beyond any power we have had before. Optimists will rejoice. Pessimists will shudder. Realists can only shake their heads and wonder.

-- Little Nipper (canis@minor.net), May 15, 2001.



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