Marcus Wolfe Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 Take a lesson from the Romans: They conquered the all the known world, but then they collapsed because their civilization rotted from the inside out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worm82075 Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 I must say Evil, you are quite mad my friend. Your idea's for the uses of genetic engineering have all been thought of before by mad scientists and science fiction writers. Would I like to see genetic engineering done on humans? No, but only because mankind is incompetent. Even if we weren't though I still would be remiss because we don't know what the next natural step in evolution is yet so how could we be sure we were making an improvement over whats to come. I am not apposed to minor tweaks that may free us of certain undesirable genetic traits such as Hemophilia and the like. What your suggesting though would take away our humanity prematurely of the next natural evolutionary leap forward.* I would recommend that we as manipulators of DNA, become masters of plant manipulation first. Once a plant can be engineered that at seed can survive in a vacuum and grow without oxygen or light and still produce then we can move onto insects. If we can then engineer an insect that ingests industrial waste and craps fertilizer then we can talk about animal experimentation. Shouldn't take us more than 300-500 years to accomplish the first part. No hate though my friend, after all they are just ideas right? Trust me I have had my share of f***** up thoughts and I've shared more than a few of them. *Here is an interesting thought for you all to mull over. If and when the human race does evolve, will it be recognized as such or will it perhaps been seen as an out of control mutation. (this is by no means an invitation to debate evolution) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninja_lord666 Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 Take a lesson from the Romans: They conquered the all the known world, but then they collapsed because their civilization rotted from the inside out.It was actually many different things that did it, not all of which were internal. Don't be so quick to point fingers. One could easily have an entire history class based solely on the Fall of Rome. Edit:*Here is an interesting thought for you all to mull over. If and when the human race does evolve, will it be recognized as such or will it perhaps been seen as an out of control mutation. (this is by no means an invitation to debate evolution)It entirely depends. Now while it isn't an entirely realistic example, the X-Men focused on this topic. Are 'mutants' human or something else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Wolfe Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 Indeed, one could spend an entire semester on the Fall of Rome. We must not forget the invading barbarians....... As for you Worm, all plants need sunlight and oxygen, but perhaps we could tinker with how much of said sunlight and oxygen was needed. We can already control how much water a plant needs through selective breeding, so those other two factors may require genetic engineering. (edit) I believe the X-men used the prejudice shown against mutants as a metaphor for racism and other forms of discrimination. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddycashmercury Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 exactly why i need to go to college :) i'd make an army of super soldiers, brainwash them all to listen to my every command, and then take over the world. after that i would most likely destroy it.That didn't work so well for Hitler, did it? His army loyally followed him. Now, they weren't biologically superior, but they did have the best weapons and best technologies, so, in a way, they were super soldiers. World domination never works; only Cthulhu can pull that one off. PREACH IT, BROTHER!!!! CTHULHU FTW! As for the ethics.... I dunno. I'll have to think about it. I can't really see a great advantage to human genetic experimentation. I don't really think it'd even be worth it until we really started colonizing planets. If that ever happens. Then, it'd have at least a few practical applications. Bodies able to withstand higher/lower gravities, perhaps aquatic explorers, etc. Also, read the Frankenstein book series by Dean Koontz. It is all fiction, of course, but the plot of the antagonist is very similar to what you claim to want to do, Evil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninja_lord666 Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 As for you Worm, all plants need sunlight and oxygen, but perhaps we could tinker with how much of said sunlight and oxygen was needed. We can already control how much water a plant needs through selective breeding, so those other two factors may require genetic engineering.Do they? Do they really? What does a plant do with sunlight The plant uses it to create sugar with which the plan feeds. We'd just need some sort of substitute. We could place...something...in the soil that gives off energy which the plant uses instead of sunlight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Wolfe Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 Heat? Nuclear radiation? Electricity? I think there's a pretty good chance that sunlight is the easiest form of energy to use for photosynthesis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vagrant0 Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 Leave humans out of the genetic engineerin thing, and there's some real potential there. Include humans in your meddling, and you're only asking for trouble. I would trust someone injecting me with nano-probes that can alter me on the cellular level before I'd trust someone to alter me on the genetic level... No matter what their promises are. And this is because what is being done would be slightly easier to undo if anything minor went wrong, or if I changed my mind since there isn't any change to genetic information. If you change DNA, you won't really be able to change it back, you can only change it again, and hope it takes. Also, nano-probes will only behave as they are programmed. Genes are not as reliable. Something as simple as changing the gene for eye color can also change other, unwanted aspects of your body. And the chemicals which are needed to turn on or off a gene can often turn on or off other genes. Turning off the gene for aging could also turn off the gene for hair growth, nerve function, or something else. Which would be a funny one. We can make you live for an additional 300 years, but you lose control of all your muscles, and as a result, have no ability to talk, move, or control your bowels. Who wants to sign up for that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Wolfe Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 Not me! So what can we do if we leave humans out of the picture? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vagrant0 Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 Not me! So what can we do if we leave humans out of the picture?Crops which are more resistant to disease for one. Animals which can produce organs which can be used for more successful transplants as another. Don't need to carry around an extra set of lungs with you if you can just get a replacement from a pig that was just going to slaughtered for meat. A pig grown for spare organs is still a pig, and doesn't have nearly as many moral implications. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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