*laugh* Yeah, isn't that what they're saying to the guy who thinks humans can live 1000 years? You have a much higher chance of getting hit before you get to that age:)
If it isn't one thing, it's another - so my cynical, pessimistic side says - WHAT'S THE POINT?
Wouldn't this sort of thing almost be a sort of cosmetic surgery in the end though? I think it's great if we can avoid the problems, but I foresee it being used (at least in the beginning) by only the people who can afford to have it done.
And, it's sad that people DON'T volunteer more time and energy to help those in need. We seem to be moving into a time where people are becoming more selfish even though they have more than they need. Someone raised a question in another post that I find appropriate - will the people with "good" genes have to help fund healthcare for those with "bad" genes? (-1 Redundant;)
I guess what I meant was, let's say we make ourselves immune to this-certain-disease, but in the process we make ourselves open to get this-other-disease. I'm having trouble explaining myself with that one. I think what I'm trying to say is, if we start messing with the code, won't we be setting ourselves up somehow?
Man, I'm really getting jumped on for this one - had no idea it was so taboo lol.
Wow... bring up a simple point/comment, and get downed for trolling... thought this was a place to learn new things, but apparently if you're not already well-informed, you get trashed.
Perhaps I look like I'm playing devil's advocate or something, but that really wasn't my intention. As it is, I really do wonder, though - won't all this just go to the people who can afford it? And aren't they the ones who can already afford the costs of getting cured already?
Hmmmm, you're very much missing my point here. I would never say that these things should not be cured - just that we're playing with something that is going to end up being owned by major corporations, and most likely will NOT be available to people with "AIDS in Africa". I doubt they have the type of HMO that will pay for this sort of thing.
Instead of playing with genes, why not INFORM the people instead? What about making condoms available to them? How about the medicine and food they need?
We're talking about trying to make people live longer lives, but are we prepared to take care of those who can't afford bling for their genes?
Disease and death are what I'm talking about. 100 years ago, people didn't live to the ages they do now, because we didn't know how to fight these things. We're now trying to trick nature so that we can live longer. But now instead of having 10 kids because only 3 will actually survive past their 25th birthday, we can have one or two "perfect" kids. Also, see my previous post about antibiotics.
That's what I'm getting at - sure, it's beginning to put out roots now, but in x number of years, we're going to be playing God at every turn. It'll be commonplace for people to "buy" their babies. And we don't know what we're doing.
Take antibiotics, for example. They were supposed to be able to cure so many things... but the viruses and bacteria learn to get around them. The more ways we come up with to avoid getting sick, the more mutations occur at that level.
In other words, by getting rid of "such-and-such" disease, we could be setting ourselves up for something worse. We don't have the knowledge or the willpower to make the correct decisions - the dollar will make them for us. And I am afraid.
And what happens once we find these? We isolate them and start working on cures... and once we've become immune to those, the superdiseases will start sneaking in. Nature finds a way to keep the population from getting too out-of-control - it has to. We can "cure" whatever we want, but something new will always pop up again - and thank goodness for that. We can find all these ways to prolong life... but how about making life better first? Let's work on problems like hunger and opression.
We're playing a dangerous game, where people can control what their baby's gender will be - now we get to play with their genes too? Ever hear of Natural Selection?
Hey, who knows, maybe companies will start buying gene sequences. Sure, you can make your kid immune to heart disease... for a price. Want them to have blond hair and blue eyes? We can do that, just fork over that cash.
I'm sure someone who is willing to go thru the pains of reading a book in that fashion would never actually buy the book. Who would invest this kind of time and effort into reading a book when they can just do it the traditional way and fork out a couple of bucks and save themselves the agro?
I doubt it would be that hard to write a program to do it. If people can automatically sign up 100 accounts for a website without lifting a finger, this would be nothing. Bing bang boom, after a couple minutes of running this loop, you've got an entire book downloaded.
Once they start putting college texts online, then we'll talk. Paying $160 for the book that you use for one semester, and getting $30 for giving it back to the school so that they can resell it again next semester for $175... Psshhtt. Let's talk searchable texts, or downloading only one chapter for a partial price. Kind of like iTunes - don't want the full cd? Buy one song.
Novels? Give me the paper version any day. Of course, the sooner I go blind from staring at the beautifully unnatural glow of my computer screen, the sooner I don't have to worry about this issue anyway.
How about something that gives suggestions based on what you've read? We have that for music, shouldn't be too hard for books. There are so many possibilities available to us if these things are available online. Everyone is so uptight about "rights" that they don't see what can really be done. The problem isn't the people that "steal" - it's the system that's not working. When you overcharge for something, people find other ways of getting it. They share books. They download music and movies. Instead of persecuting them, take a look at why the system is having problems, and fix that instead.
Slashdot Mirror
If it isn't one thing, it's another - so my cynical, pessimistic side says - WHAT'S THE POINT?
And, it's sad that people DON'T volunteer more time and energy to help those in need. We seem to be moving into a time where people are becoming more selfish even though they have more than they need. Someone raised a question in another post that I find appropriate - will the people with "good" genes have to help fund healthcare for those with "bad" genes? (-1 Redundant ;)
Man, I'm really getting jumped on for this one - had no idea it was so taboo lol.
Perhaps I look like I'm playing devil's advocate or something, but that really wasn't my intention. As it is, I really do wonder, though - won't all this just go to the people who can afford it? And aren't they the ones who can already afford the costs of getting cured already?
Thanks for playing, Metallichica.
Instead of playing with genes, why not INFORM the people instead? What about making condoms available to them? How about the medicine and food they need?
We're talking about trying to make people live longer lives, but are we prepared to take care of those who can't afford bling for their genes?
Disease and death are what I'm talking about. 100 years ago, people didn't live to the ages they do now, because we didn't know how to fight these things. We're now trying to trick nature so that we can live longer. But now instead of having 10 kids because only 3 will actually survive past their 25th birthday, we can have one or two "perfect" kids. Also, see my previous post about antibiotics.
Take antibiotics, for example. They were supposed to be able to cure so many things... but the viruses and bacteria learn to get around them. The more ways we come up with to avoid getting sick, the more mutations occur at that level.
In other words, by getting rid of "such-and-such" disease, we could be setting ourselves up for something worse. We don't have the knowledge or the willpower to make the correct decisions - the dollar will make them for us. And I am afraid.
We're playing a dangerous game, where people can control what their baby's gender will be - now we get to play with their genes too? Ever hear of Natural Selection?
Hey, who knows, maybe companies will start buying gene sequences. Sure, you can make your kid immune to heart disease... for a price. Want them to have blond hair and blue eyes? We can do that, just fork over that cash.
I'm sure someone who is willing to go thru the pains of reading a book in that fashion would never actually buy the book. Who would invest this kind of time and effort into reading a book when they can just do it the traditional way and fork out a couple of bucks and save themselves the agro? I doubt it would be that hard to write a program to do it. If people can automatically sign up 100 accounts for a website without lifting a finger, this would be nothing. Bing bang boom, after a couple minutes of running this loop, you've got an entire book downloaded.
Once they start putting college texts online, then we'll talk. Paying $160 for the book that you use for one semester, and getting $30 for giving it back to the school so that they can resell it again next semester for $175... Psshhtt. Let's talk searchable texts, or downloading only one chapter for a partial price. Kind of like iTunes - don't want the full cd? Buy one song. Novels? Give me the paper version any day. Of course, the sooner I go blind from staring at the beautifully unnatural glow of my computer screen, the sooner I don't have to worry about this issue anyway. How about something that gives suggestions based on what you've read? We have that for music, shouldn't be too hard for books. There are so many possibilities available to us if these things are available online. Everyone is so uptight about "rights" that they don't see what can really be done. The problem isn't the people that "steal" - it's the system that's not working. When you overcharge for something, people find other ways of getting it. They share books. They download music and movies. Instead of persecuting them, take a look at why the system is having problems, and fix that instead.