China’s CRISPR twins might have had their brains inadvertently enhanced

[Tykus]

Fuck sometimes I hate it when I'm right.



This is definitely a long term play on world domination. I'm not joking.

Fastest path to world dom is AI, this is just another path.

[Techno-Druid]

Fuck sometimes I hate it when I'm right.



This is definitely a long term play on world domination. I'm not joking.

Make no mistake, CRISPR could be the start of great changes to humanity. It has already revolutionized medicine to some degree and future generations could see a world where everything from flu to blindness can be effectively treated or even eliminated. We could even see a world in the future where aging can be slowed down by centuries or even reversed.

The issue is what happens when we apply that for other uses on humans like we're seeing with animals now. Some geneticists are using gene drives to make it to where an invasive species or disease-carrying insect like mosquito populations that carry malaria are edited to where they can only give birth to one sex at a 100% ratio, effectively wiping them out. In race horses in South America, breeders are attempting to create more athletic horses.

They're even using CRISPR to attempt to de-extinct animals like woolly mammoths, tasmanian tigers and passenger pigeons, by collecting the DNA fragments left behind by semi-preserved carcasses, rebuilding and sequencing the extinct genome and then essentially copy-and-pasting those extinct genes onto the genome of a close living relative, so basically building a mammoth from an Asian elephant.

None of these are problematic on their own, but what happens when governments want to apply this to humans? It's a Pandora's Box and one that terrifies and inspires me at the same time.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

The great part is, you can alter you DNA while you are alive too with the same process. This is how they have discovered how to reverse age and regenerate organs like eyes in mice already and human trials on age reduction are only a few years away

It needs to come faster. But yes.. Excellent............./gifhere

[Varitok]

I am sick of the "it's okay when China does it" shit. If the US, or the UK did shit like this people would be up in arms about how wrong it is.

[Kreo]

Damn, makes me sad I was born way before this tech was even invented. Can only image the possibilities, good and bad. But before really give it a kick, we need space travel or something. Can't contain all that niceness on 1 planet, might end up screwing it up, especially religious groups protesting against enhanced humans.

[Shadowferal]

Yes it would be great if any place enhances the human gene collection. As people get more intelligent they tend to get more reasonable, unlike in Hollywood movies where genuises are drawn to evil.

For fuck's sake, do you even have a clue to the consequences to what you're saying?
For christ's sake think before you post.

[Techno-Druid]

Damn, makes me sad I was born way before this tech was even invented. Can only image the possibilities, good and bad. But before really give it a kick, we need space travel or something. Can't contain all that niceness on 1 planet, might end up screwing it up, especially religious groups protesting against enhanced humans.

It's very likely that humans could experience a light form of speciation in space, if we choose to modify ourselves to survive in more hostile conditions: bioforming (where we modify ourselves and other lifeforms to live in an alien environment) or bioterraforming (somewhere between bioforming and terraforming).

[PC2]

For fuck's sake, do you even have a clue to the consequences to what you're saying?
For christ's sake think before you post.

What are you talking about? Improving human beings is obviously a good thing. Imagine if the pre-homo sapien primates tried to prevent evolutionary improvements. We wouldn't be alive today.

[Shadowferal]

What are you talking about? Improving human beings is obviously a good thing. Imagine if the pre-homo sapien primates tried to prevent evolutionary improvements. We wouldn't be alive today.

Yeah, and the mention of NK should have made you think.
If I'm a N. Korean my sole concern is NK. Or do you imagine in some way that'll change because my intellect is so much greater than yours? Because I assure you my creators will endow me with nothing less than obeisance to the current regime...and that likely that I can do a better job to making NK the superpower it was meant to be.

Not that you could understand...(Yes, that's condescension, because I know I am smarter than you...)

But hey, enjoy being a 2nd class citizen. That will be the best you can be. If not...you'll make slave stock.

[PC2]

Yeah, and the mention of NK should have made you think.
If I'm a N. Korean my sole concern is NK. Or do you imagine in some way that'll change because my intellect is so much greater than yours? Because I assure you my creators will endow me with nothing less than obeisance to the current regime...and that likely that I can do a better job to making NK the superpower it was meant to be.

Not that you could understand...(Yes, that's condescension, because I know I am smarter than you...)

But hey, enjoy being a 2nd class citizen. That will be the best you can be. If not...you'll make slave stock.

Obediance can't be programmed into a superior intellect. Increased intellect and increased agency/free will go hand-in-hand.

[The Stormbringer]

The great part is, you can alter you DNA while you are alive too with the same process. This is how they have discovered how to reverse age and regenerate organs like eyes in mice already and human trials on age reduction are only a few years away

I need it yesterday. Not for me, but for my dad. I'm happy to wait ten or twenty years myself.

[Laserknees]

id wager these kids basically being fawned over 24/7 and having access to the best education available has more to do with them doing better than being crispy

[Techno-Druid]

id wager these kids basically being fawned over 24/7 and having access to the best education available has more to do with them doing better than being crispy

What education... they're infants? Lol.

[Laserknees]

What education... they're infants? Lol.

they are going to have amazing education and tons of attention

[SinR]

mmmm....

Crispy Babies.

[Asrialol]

Do you want to get cancer or some deadly disease?

The chance that I get cancer is extremely high since almost all men in my family has had cancer. Still dont give a shit. Less people = good, whether I join that statistics or not makes no difference.

[apples]

they are going to have amazing education and tons of attention

please sir give me the lottery numbers since you can see the future please sir

[Xandrigity]

Since there is two of them they should raise one with an average education and lifestyle and one,with an enhanced education and lifestyle to see how that effects them as they mature.

[The Stormbringer]

please sir give me the lottery numbers since you can see the future please sir

Considering that there's some convincing arguments and potential evidence pointing to this having been done intentionally by the Chinese government and the outrage being a smokescreen to hide that fact? I think there's a good chance they'll be getting very good education, yes.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Wake me when they also managed to give them reality altering superpowers..

Btw, is that even confirmed? I'm pretty sure I read in other sources that all they are sure of is that their brains also got altered, if the effect is at all positive is uncertain.