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Free Radio Rulo's avatar

Good points here! We need to be very careful when mucking around with new technology.

Another interesting development is the use of gene editing with (CRISPR) in mosquitoes and mice to reduce disease vectors. The implications of this sound good on the surface but there could be hidden implications to ecosystems similar to those if we were to re-introduce extinct species!

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Michael's avatar

Too right Jim! We've just begun to crack open a Pandora's box there. Now's the time to slow down, step back, take a breath and work out long term consequences. All are skills we aren't notoriously good at.

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Graciewilde's avatar

Sigh. I am not a fan of all these developments. We don't know what we are doing as we , in theory, try to fix things. As you suggest , caution is the word here. But I don't have a lot of faith in humanity right now so we'll see where that goes....

How are you feeling?

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Michael's avatar

I don't either- We have a long track record of not working out long term consequences and kicking consequence cans down the road! Operations can be quick and seemingly decisive but long term sequelae (like AEF) can be devastating. With poorly managed re-introductions we might find ourselves like Bill Paxton in the second Aliens movie, standing in the wreckage, crying "Game over! Game over, man! What do we do now?!"

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Graciewilde's avatar

Exactly

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Michael's avatar

And if you meant the other matter in your last question- swimmingly!

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Greeley Miklashek, MD's avatar

We humans are well known for our history of rushing into new tech, only to windup creating monsters. So, resurrecting extinct megafauna fits. This ole retired psychiatrist knows form long experience that losing agency (our ability to control our environment) is a key cause of depression and we are allowing ourselves to sink ever further into this algorithim/AI world as we watch our children scrolling away on their I-phones and requiring ever more psychiatric treatment. Hmmmm? Thank for your work and have a blessed day!

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Michael's avatar

First step: find a way to detoxify social media? That's a Pandora's box we didn't foresee.

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Whilst Out Walking's avatar

These de-extinction projects are mostly grand-standing with very little chance of success. Even if Passenger Pigeons could be resurrected any individual bird could only be successful in the wild if the other ten million birds of the ancestral flock could also be generated because they relied on flock dynamics to actually "be" a successful species. Can't be done - all you end up with is a colony of very unhappy birds.

As for CRISPR technology etc it is potentially amazingly useful with immense power if handled properly. https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2024/06/stanford-explainer-crispr-gene-editing-and-beyond

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Michael's avatar

Thank you!! And for those readers not in the know-Richard Gregson is a biologist, an FRSB, and a preeminent expert in such matters. One of the joys of the subscribership here is that we have a relatively large contingent of scientists, philosophers, and very well informed readers. The comments are often more useful than my articles!

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