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As frightening as it sounds, soon humans will possess the power to create life in new forms, thereby wresting the power of evolution out of the hands of mother nature.
Last year, scientists create babies from skin cells[^], meaning that nearly any part of a life-form contains enough genetic material to essentially clone it.
Then in march of this year, scientists create viable embryos from stem cells[^], which means that once you have genetic information, you can gestate a new life with it.
Couple that with the news from today, Scientists create artificial womb[^], soon they will be able to carry those artificially created embryos through to term.
Couple these new developments with the genetic engineering knowledge of Cargil, Monsanto, and Dow-Chemical and it's not a huge leap to manipulating the DNA of livestock, creating viable embryos, and growing them until birth all without having to wait on live-birth gestation. The implications of this are fascinating and frightening. Not only could they produce livestock in a factory but they could potentially revive extinct species if enough DNA has survived intact. The possible implications to food supply here is noteworthy. The frightening part is that they could create not only designer humans but any designer creature leading to all sort of possible combinations.
Give it ten years with some shady governments in need of money and we just might see genetic R & D far outside the law of most countries.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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Yes! At last - ManBearPig lives!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I was kinda hoping to get my own pet Cerberus out of this new science. Brings a whole new meaning to those "Beware of Dog" signs for your yard.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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OriginalGriff wrote: Yes! At last - ManBearPig lives!
Or better yet... Huge mutated cupcakes![^]
On the other hand, you have different fingers. - Steven Wright
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Sure, but how is this different from the "shotgun genetic engineering" that's been going on for centuries, going on under the name of "breeding"?
Oh, I know!
This way, we've got a better idea of how much damage we're doing to the species we're f**king about with working on!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I won't argue that the implications if they succeed are staggering. I, on the other hand, will speculate that the real bleeding edge breakthroughs are going to happen in places where enforcing international laws is nearly impossible as the research will most definitely be considered illegal and ethically questionable. The money that can be made from absolute genetic control and the ability to manufacture life on industrial scales is to great to ignore.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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Farm animals don't have rights, under laws created by other mammals (i.e. us), so "inciting the creation of" human-food creatures may take the onus off of cows, pigs, etc, and create also the distinction between "natural animals", which need to be protected, and "Restaurant-at-the-end-of-the-Universe food."
Sorry, but I can't see this as a bad thing. You have to look at it from a Real Futures(TM) perspective, rather than an "I think..." one.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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This new found power, like all other human tools, is a double edged sword. Would we be able to create a process to manufacture enough meat to feed all of humanity? I would guess that yes we could. Would some people also be able to take eugenics to it's logical conclusion? I would also guess yes.
I will not speculate on the morality of it. I am more surprised that I might get to see it in my lifetime.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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But it's not new. W've been breeding food animals for centuries -- millennia, even.
This is just a slightly more humane -- and much more efficient -- way of doing it.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I don't think that animals for food is really an issue. It's the desire to create super humans for the military and "posh" designer babies that will be the problem. Any kind of power over nature is inherently dangerous, because humans by nature, always find a way to abuse it.
When you are dead, you won't even know that you are dead. It's a pain only felt by others.
Same thing when you are stupid.
modified 19-Nov-21 21:01pm.
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Hell, politicians and military leaders will always be @rseholes, no matter the technology.
Not just them, either. We've already had one "member" of CP loudly and proudly advocating apartheid, in the soapbox.
Expect the worst, and hope that the decent people amongst us can keep the @rseholes in check.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Damn, another political click-bait comment and our self-annointed moderators are again nowhere to be found. Let me open my book of spells so that I can chant the magical words that will bring them forth from their closets....
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What about my post is political click bait. It's just three separate stories that aren't much on their own but when you put them together it leads to some interesting ideas and conclusions. To me, it's more about the science than the political ramifications.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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Hi Foothill,
You just answered your own question.
Don't get me wrong, I have no objection to posting comments and questions here that some deem to be inappropriate for a programmers site. Personally, I prefer reading comments such as your instead of frivolous and lame jokes about gardens and bones. But this is a programmers site after all and rule #4 states, "No politics (including enviro-politics[^]), no sex, no religion"
Cheers,
Ian
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Ian, I can see your point where a debate over the moral and ethical implications of the topic would be Soapbox worthy. I may approach the issue from a scientific point of view while others may not.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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I posted a question a while back as to whether or not Amazon is censuring books for political reasons. It was a only intended as a frivolous question in that I did not really believe this occurs in North America.
After doing a bit of research, I subsequently sent Amazon an email asking if it was indeed censuring books and I received an email from Amazon confirming that this is true. Amazon's response was yes, it had 'banned' certain books. It was very clear this was due to political pressure from a special interest group. I immediately cancelled my Amazon account as I consider this policy to be completely unacceptable.
The nature of the subject matter distracted my readers and they made it clear that politics, at least regarding the secondary subject matter, was off-limits.
I've noted that comments, such as yours, that are arguably of a political nature, have not raised a single eyebrow (other than by yours truly, being the 'zealot' that I am). If you re-read my OP to you then you will see it was not targeting you at all.
I tend to think the Soapbox needs, every now and then, something to spice it up - you know, to take away the drudgery of its every day 'soap opera' nature. I welcome comments such as yours. But that is just my opinion.
Cheers,
Ian
modified 25-Apr-17 17:27pm.
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Some film titles are coming up when reading your message...
Gatacca, the island of Dr. Moureau, Jurasic Parc, Resident Evil... and more.
I don't remember whose quote it is but... "Mankind is increasing knowledge before gaining wisdom and ethic. What a dangerous situation" (sorry if not accurate, just translating on my own because a quick search of the correct quote brought me nowhere)
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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So at some point I might actually get to consume a brontosaurus burger? Sweet!
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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I, for one, welcome our new designer mutant overlords!
First we design / re-design animals to solve some food problems.
Second, we tweak the human genome to eliminate the nasty genetic diseases.
Third, a few unscrupulous types design the perfect man or woman - maybe add something crazy like a 3rd eye or gills.
Soon enough we'll be able to design quasi-humans fit for life on the moon or Mars or the moons of Saturn.
If mankind doesn't evolve (naturally or otherwise) and keep pushing outward we're going to ultimately become extinct on a lonely little planet in the corner of a nondescript galaxy.
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. ~ Ronald Reagan
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And I'm currently rereading John Ringo's Council Wars novels. Appropriate. 
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Yesterday I posted a link to a site that tells you the famous (relatively so) people born on the same month and day as you.
Well, here's a Python script to scrape just the "Person of Interest" (great series, BTW) from the website:
import requests
from lxml import html
from lxml.cssselect import CSSSelector
from lxml import etree
page = requests.get("<a href="http:
tree = html.fromstring(page.content)
sel = CSSSelector('.section--person-of-interest')
pois = sel(tree)
for poi in pois:
poi.xpath("div/div/div[1]/p")[0].text_content()
You may need:
pip install lxml
pip install cssselect
pip install requests
And an example result:
'1871 Orville Wright, aviator (Wright Brothers), born in Dayton, Ohio (d. 1912)'
'1878 Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina, Second President of the Philippines (1935-42), born in Baler, Aurora, Philippines (d. 1944)'
'1919 Malcolm Forbes, American publisher of Forbes Magazine, born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1990)'
'1946 Bill Clinton [William Jefferson], 42nd US President (Democrat, 1993-2001), born in Hope, Arkansas'
'1967 Satya Nadella, Indian-American businessman (CEO of Microsoft), born in Hyderabad'
[edit]The CP editor mangled the URL a bit[/edit]
Marc
Latest Article - Merkle Trees
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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almost no one on my birthday! 
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Which reminds me of the age-old question: How many great men were born in Illinois?
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This Description
"The Function.prototype property represents the Function prototype object."
Huh?
Gotta love some of the docs companies put out
If it's not broken, fix it until it is.
Everything makes sense in someone's mind.
Ya can't fix stupid.
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