From: Ramez Naam (mez@apexnano.com)
Date: Fri Nov 29 2002 - 08:29:04 MST
From: Robert J. Bradbury [mailto:bradbury@aeiveos.com]
> What Greg Stock does not address is whether the technology
> will advance fast enough to enable self-modification within a
> generation. If so, then all living humans (subject to cost
> constraints) will be able to self-evolve.
I think this is a great question. However, I must point out that
modifying the genome of an adult organism is not going to have nearly
as profound an effect as modifying the genome of an embryo.
The genes we have, in many cases, have their most profound effect on
us during our developmental phases - as embryos, newborns, children,
adolescents, etc... The later in life you intervene, the less of an
impact you will have.
In an earlier version of this thread I used the example of homeobox
genes in the fruit fly. We can manipulate these in an embryo and in
so doing give the adult fruit fly an extra pair of wings or legs or
whatever.
However, if you were to try making this same genetic change to an
adult fruit fly, I predict you would get a result far different (and
probably far more lethal) than you get by making the change in an
embryo.
So, to my mind, adult gene therapy will never catch up with embryonic
genetic engineering in terms of its effects. To match embryonic
genetic engineering you're going to need something like molecular
nanotechnology, and we've already seen how bullish I am on that. :)
cheers,
mez
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