Yep, couldn't agree more. It is a profound problem that we tend to substitute low-res versions in the wild with high-res versions in our mind whenever we have them - and then dismiss criticism of the low-res ones as wrong and dumb.
what I have trouble understanding is the the doctrinal adoption of slippery slope hyper-vigilance by those on the left. I find the right wing Christian fundamentalist objection to be a lot easier to understand (they have a religious doctrine directly undermined by the facts).
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I'm saying that in a tactical political sense they are correct in doing so. There is more to lose than gain in opening that can of worms. As Marx said, they seek not to understand the world, but to change it.
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there's a lot of collateral damage. suppose there are gene therapies that have to be administered in utero to be effective? or what about people that voluntarily have gene tests to see if they're recessive carriers of genetic diseases?
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Pffft, nuance. We're talking about the degraded generally comprehensible version, remember?
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fair point. how much nuance does it take to convince people that the cure for cancer is probably going to be a gene therapy?
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It's ok if they do evo thinking about populations of cells, and don't draw any political conclusions. Sure ppl will line up for cancer gene therapy.
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ok, so thought experiment is needed here. compare and contrast: CRISPR style adult gene editing vs. germ-line gene hacking that is only expressed in the children. the former "cures" cancer like an anti-biotic cures strep throat. the latter prevents cancer inter-generationally.
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the former case is boring. too obvious that it would be widely accepted. how about the latter case. that's a eugenics program that could make treated people no longer have offspring that are vulnerable to the most common types of heritable cancers. how would that be accepted?
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Now, a gene therapy for poverty, that would be something. This is SF premise land. One story I read had good dystopic educated elite/flyover masses setting, and then nanotech weapon is repurposed to make everyone photosynthesize. Basic minimum calories anyway.
End of conversation
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