I’m not sure I get the universal negativity to this. Like sure, Altman sucks as a person, and an individual having enough money to significantly bankroll research like this is a sign of an economic failure, but surely curing or preventing genetic disease is just about the most uncontroversial use human genetic modification could have?
Sam Altman and husband reportedly working to genetically engineer babies from having hereditary disease
Submitted 3 hours ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 2 hours ago
qweertz@programming.dev 13 minutes ago
“What’s bad with eugenics for the rich?”
6nk06@sh.itjust.works 1 hour ago
He’s a bad person and he’s always lying.
Windex007@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
It’ll only be available for the super rich, will expand to other augmentations/engineering, and will result in further reinforcing social mobility boundaries.
CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 1 hour ago
The response to something beneficial being only available to the rich shouldn’t be to avoid developing that thing, it should be to make it available to everyone. The failures of the US healthcare and economic systems don’t suddenly make developing new medical techniques a bad thing. Human augmentation is another issue from curing genetic disease, though I’d personally argue that wouldn’t be a bad cause either, with the same caveat about it availability. It at least has more potential to improve somebody’s life somewhere down the line than just buying a yacht with his ill gotten gains or some other useless rich person toy would.
jonathan7luke@lemmy.zip 27 minutes ago
This isn’t really an answer to the ‘universal negativity’, but for a somewhat reasonable analysis of the pros and (surprisingly high number of) cons as well as some interesting grey areas, there’s an old LWT episode on this topic: youtu.be/AJm8PeWkiEU
scarabic@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Because the US health care system already serves the wealthy and abandons the poor, any expensive treatments are seen as just further steps into a Gattaca future of even more dystopian disparity, especially when driven by a rich asshole personally.
Universal negativity is also kind of the norm around here. A lot of folks on Lemmy believe we are slaves sucking Satan’s cock for breakfast, and anything that isn’t a complete burn down of our system and way of life is a negative.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Is that his motivation though? Wanna make a bet that this does or doesn’t end as he says at face value?
AmidFuror@fedia.io 2 hours ago
Right. Currently the ways we avoid genetic disease are screening partners, screening IVF embryos, and in utero testing + abortion.
Passerby6497@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Please review the glimpse into our future titled “Gattaca” to see why people might be concerned.
mech@feddit.org 1 hour ago
There’s nothing uncontroversial about human genetic modification.
It’s a pandora’s box that just shouldn’t be opened.merde@sh.itjust.works 47 minutes ago
There’s nothing uncontroversial about human genetic modification.
It’s a pandora’s box that just shouldn’t be opened.writes the person who isn’t suffering because of a genetic disorder or met anybody suffering from a genetic disorder
ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 hours ago
This really reminds me of “Brave New World”, kind of scary actually.
Passerby6497@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
And everyone already has the ability to pick their Soma
Zier@fedia.io 1 hour ago
If it works as good as AI, people will be chronic liars, have multiple fingers, and be annoying attention whores always asking if they can "help" you.
probable_possum@leminal.space 3 hours ago
Engineer some humans who can survive in zero gravity without peeing out their bone minerals. Humans who can survive hard radiation in space without having their cells crippled from destroyed DNA.
Maybe start with simple organisms. Like algae. :)
makyo@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
I’d just like to have to trim my nails less frequently
merde@sh.itjust.works 39 minutes ago
I’d just like to have to trim my nails less frequently
i used to think like you, then i started (ab)using my hands for activities that wear them out. Now i’m glad that they’re growing sufficiently fast to replace/renew
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Dude. How fast are your fingernails growing that it’s a problem?
goatinspace@feddit.org 2 hours ago
verdi@feddit.org 1 hour ago
This is the usual front to further develop “designer baby” tech (which we already have, it’s just the use is considered unethical). Mask investment as “saving the children” and altruistic to later flip the tech to billionaire friends so they can make little aryans on a d5 roll for a an AC of 1… Much like the open that turned for profit…
gian@lemmy.grys.it 2 hours ago
If (and is a really, really big if) this open the door to a better understanding of this type of pathologies and a way to somewhat cure them, I would say that it would be for the better.
But of course I am sure it will not end this way…
DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf 2 hours ago
Oh hell no, don’t bring Jurassic Park to the real world, please.
(JP did this with dinos, but this is the exact thing that franchise warned about)
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
No no. Do it with dinos!
mannycalavera@feddit.uk 2 hours ago
Altman finds a way…
DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf 2 hours ago
Similarly, the type of things currently going on with AI, most notably Grok being in bed with the Military, are what Terminator warns about.
-sigh- Dystopian/post-apocalyptic fiction is not supposed to be an instruction manual, guys…
NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
TIL Sam is gay
umbrella@lemmy.ml 1 hour ago
further proof their homophobia is performative to have the peasants infighting about trans people they probably never met in their life.
baronvonj@lemmy.world 47 minutes ago
The trans people they never knew they met.