From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Fri May 03 2002 - 11:21:09 MDT
> (Brian D Williams <talon57@well.com>):
>
> You are attempting to change a well established meaning for the
> term "organic" to get your procedure accepted. You are attempting
> to duck below the radar of the ignorant or ill informed.
>
> There is a world of difference between gene-splicing and even the
> most advanced forms of crossbreeding like directed evolution.
On this we agree: engineering is precise and controllable, while
hybridization is mostly guesswork.
> No amount of crossbreeding will put pig genes into a plant as an
> example.
It is a symptom of the ignorance and disinformation spread by the
luddites that people refer to things as "pig genes" and "plant
genes", while anyone with a basic understanding of the facts knows
that there are no such things. Another case of irrationally
attributing properties to something based on heritage, when there
is no legitimate reason to do so.
> Racist? you've descended into rhetoric....
Absolutely, but educated rhetoric. Racism is attributing qualities
to persons based on heritage rather than actual observation. Saying
that there is some inherent difference between hybridized plants and
engineered plants is exactly the same thing, and equally irrational.
> As an informed individual, I want to know what's in what I eat, I
> also have a problem with some else's experiments contaminating what
> I eat.
Define "contamination" in a rational way that includes engineering
but not accidental hybridization.
> I think some GMO's are a good idea, golden rice for example. But we
> should be careful about introducing new "information" into a
> mature ecosystem.
>
> Extropians are not careless.
But nor should we be fearmongers or cowards. We choose to embrace
technology in spite of the risks, because we believe that knowledge
and rational thinking can control it to our benefit. Luddites run
from it in fear, because they don't. We can and should shine a
light on their actions and their ignorance to de-romanticize them.
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