Slashdot Mirror
Controlling Fear By Modifying DNA
An anonymous reader writes "The fear of flying or of skittering spiders can mean more than just a momentary increase in heart rate and a pair of sweaty palms. A hard-core phobia can lead to crippling anxiety. Now an international team of researchers says it believes it has found a way to silence the gene that feeds phobic fear via a novel mechanism of gene regulation associated with fear extinction. The notion appears to be that phobias arise from experiences that have left an outsized imprint on gene expression, and that undoing this can undo the anxiety itself. The study was published this month (abstract) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
At least, that's what Will Smith told me.
Pissing ice since 1995.
Um yea, I don't see ANY potential problems by altering someone's genetics to remove fear. This reads like a bad sci-fi movie plot.
The Divergent series is all about gene manipulation including the fear gene. If only it was a more logical take on a society using gene manipulation. Anyone who read the Divergent series all the way through must be wishing they had this fear controlling gene modified so they wouldn't have had to suffer through the last two books.
Simple feed the children LEAD. IT will suppress the fear triggers and make them far more hostile.
If you want to build the perfect warrior, then just do what the romans and the vikings did. Lead dosing.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
How quickly can we distribute this?
Boy, didn't see this one coming.
http://thefederalist.com/2014/05/07/another-survey-confirms-journalists-are-overwhelmingly-liberal/
"If a newsroom has a good chance of not even having someone of the Republican variety within its confines, it’s a newsroom that probably struggles to even come close to understanding the perspective of GOP voters. It’s a newsroom that might struggle to fairly cover or might completely ignore stories about tax burdens on families, systemic failures of the welfare state, the benefits of gun ownership, or the evils of a serial-murdering abortion doctor in Philadelphia (just speaking hypothetically here)."
So in other words, it's not fair. Republicans get misrepresented by journalists in a big way. Oh and we all know the bias we find in educational institutions don't we? Oh and don't even think about any bias towards socialism in the popular media. It's almost like a plot!
It's no wonder that Republicans are so hated around here, where so many of you geeks and nerds are young and have barely begun paying taxes and a often fresh out of university. But I still have to ask, what is so bad about individual liberty, natural rights and limited government huh? Why are you all so gung ho for the nanny state, big government and the welfare system?
Do any of you realize you are biased against conservatives because you have been *trained* to be? No one thinks it might be a good idea to unplug that cable from the back of your heads for a few minutes and let reason take over for a bit, and to see what comes from that?
No one?
They found that learning to extinguish fear causes expression of a gene.
In common western medicine fashion, the important thing here is not that behavioural methods are effective in changing gene expression, but we can now remove the stimulus for gene expression (a persons conscious control) and package it up into a pill to sell for profit!
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
I can imagine cases where the ability to deliberately acquire a phobia could be beneficial. Who needs an e-cig when you could just piss yourself at the thought of smoking-related cancer?
they want to screw with our minds? Worse - with fear? You can't like start with getting rid of diabetic tendencies? Or even give us the power to choose our own skin color? One sure way to end racism in the US at least (of course we would probably have to change hair type as well).
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Fear is great for fight or flight. That's it.
Removing it *completely* might be dangerous - it kicks in faster than higher-thinking, so it makes avoiding a car-crash easier. If this "instantaneous" fear can be preserved while dampening the "phobic fear" this article is talking about, that's a HUGE win. Think of all the geniuses out there who've had phobias, and how limited they are by them. (Tesla - big example). That's just the famous ones - maybe the undiscovered ones could add to more to society if they were given a chance to be free from debilitating phobias.
I am confident that none of this work was secretly funded by the armed forces.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
There is no DNA modification happening here. This is about gene expression, which is a very different concept.
I've gone through different stages of fear with flying. From not being bothered at all, to terrible fear and anxiety for weeks before a scheduled flight and then back to not being bothered at all. Strange how the mind works.
I worked for a major airline and flew an average of six legs a week. As time went on my fear got worse. I changed jobs (not because of the flying) and eventually my new job had me flying too. With flying less frequently, my fear got REALLY bad. For weeks before a flight, the flight is all I could think about. Immediately when I woke up, when I was working, when I was watching TV etc. Constantly thinking about it with a sinking feeling in my stomache. I would count down the daysand hours, 15 days before my flight, next Tuesday, in 6 days, in 12 hours etc.. I would get sick, start puking, and have forms of panic attacks starting a few days before the flight. Strange thing though is once I actually got on the plane, I was fine and felt stupid for feeling the way I did before the flight. Eventually as a flew more and more again, I started to get better. Now I fly at least monthly and I am not bothered by it at all.
One thing I do still have issues with is mild and above mid flight turbulence when I can not see the ground or horizon to use as a steady point of reference, like when stuck in the clouds. Not having a frame of reference that I can stare at while bouncing around that is steady freaks me out instantly. Same thing happened to me in the couple of minor earthquakes I've been in buildings for and also some types of amusement park rides.
There's no need to modify DNA to ease phobias, you just have to get over whatever personal issue is holding you back.
I used to have an irrational fear of spiders, then I moved to a house with lots of spiders. Phobia cured.
Do you want Reavers? Because that's how you get Reavers.
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Nothing is terrible except fear itself." - Francis Bacon
They need to get to work on STUPIDITY. Fear has it's uses.
I could be both good and bad.
The good thing is that religion would end because no one would fear that Hell place that is crammed into ones head as a child, but the bad thing could be that we may die out sooner because we would not fear the bear coming to eat us.
The deeper side though thinks that this might be a GREAT idea because I am afraid of heights and flying. In order for me to get on a plane I have to pretty much take enough sedatives to kill a horse. There isn't anything out there strong enough to where I have no clue of my surroundings. I also have anthropophobia which causes me to work from home and conduct business over the phone, text, email or online. It is very difficult for me to be around crowds of more than 5-6 people at a time.
"That's right...I said it."
I have a heavy dht habit of around 1700mg per day and the long term side effects lead to hardcore paranoid delusions, but still not as bad as fucking clowns.
Specifically my fear of clowns who live in sewers? Clowns who live in sewers and who also repeatedly say, "We all float down here." Because I think if I could talk to that guy I could help him.
I stand by the fact that people who aren't afraid of heights have brains that don't work correctly. Your brain is trying to keep your dumb ass alive by making you not go near ledges and stuff. We're afraid of bugs and spiders because they're often poisonous. Same with snakes. I'm not afraid of snakes at all so guess who's more likely to get bit, me or someone who's afraid of snakes? So why correct something that is a benefit? You know what my solution to spider phobia is? Kill the spider.
There's nothing to fear here, move along..
Next on the agenda, we clone Jem'Hadar and become galactic overlords.
quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.
Simple feed the children LEAD ... If you want to build the perfect warrior...
An interesting idea, but modifying "fear DNA" is a great step towards bio-engineering "warrior drones". Think Tyrell Corporation...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
All hail the Daleks! Destroy the humans! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!
This would be most welcoming for those who are facing problems related to hyperventilation syndrome