From: Joseph 1 (neohuman@goldenfuture.net)
Date: Sun Apr 28 2002 - 18:57:08 MDT
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-extropians@extropy.org [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.org]On
Behalf Of Hal Finney
> Sent: Sunday, April 28, 2002 6:00 PM
>
> At the talk I attended last week, Greg Stock made an interesting
> point about germ line engineering. One of his quotes in this document
> mentions it as well. He suggested that germ line engineering was not
> such a good idea, not because of any fears of making humans obsolete,
> but because the engineering changes would be obsolete by the time the
> next generation came along.
>
> He said that it was possible to do genetic engineering in the pre-
> embryonic stage such as adding a new chromosome, and arranging that the
> new 'some would self-destruct in the germ cells of the new organism.
> This would then leave a "clean slate" for the next generation to work
> their magic on, which would be ~20 years more advanced. Just like you
> wouldn't want to use a 20 year old computer today, you wouldn't want 20
> year old genetic enhancements 75 years from now.
Would it not be better to be continuously adding to such genetic
enhancements, rather than re-starting with a tabula rosa in each generation?
To adapt your example, I would much rather try to upgrade a 1982 computer
than a Babbage Difference Engine. ;-) Of course, analogies break down at
some point, and here we see it rather quickly, but the principle remains the
same.
If one posits such technology as retro-viral genetic re-engineering, I can't
help but think it would be more efficient to do so on an already-enhanced
genome. Even if that genome is only enhanced +20 (on some arbitrary measure
of such enhancements), surely that's better than employing the same
techniques on a non-enhanced genome.
The same goes for classic eugenics based on conventional breeding. Unless we
reach the point where complete customization of the entire genome is viable,
retroactive genetic enhancement can only be made more effective if applied
to a superior baseline.
Joseph
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