Genetic Research Explosion

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The most notable technology for manipulating DNA is called CRISPR, which stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. Yes, it’s as complicated as it sounds, yet it is now regularly used in genetic labs around the world.

 

This technology can “cut” the cell’s genome at specific places so that genes, the instructions for building an organism, can be removed or added. This procedure has the potential to remove, for instance, genes that might be responsible for turning on cancer or hereditary diseases. The task now is to determine what each of the genes along the DNA strand actually does. Many have been identified, but the vast majority still remain a mystery.

 

What the field of genetics has taught us is that every cell contains the instructions for the entire organism. This means that any living cell from any part of your body has the blueprints to potentially create another person just like you. Further, every set of instructions contains the evolutionary history of the organism. For instance, the human genome contains instructions for creating gills and a tail and other physical parts that Natural Selection has long since removed from the human form. These “obsolete” instructions are evidence of our evolutionary history and the evolution of the human organism. So, if we still retain these instructions, why do we not have gills and a tail?

 

Sometimes we do. Very rarely a person is born with a tail or other physical “abnormalities” as a result of genetic instructions. In nearly all of the human population, the genetic instructions for these abnormalities have been “turned off” by other evolved genes. But if those “turning off” genes fail for some reason, the vestigial genes kick in as they were designed to do and we get a human with a tail. But suppose there arose some positive reason for having a tail or gills. It is now possible to shut off the genes that shut down the genetics for developing a tail or gills and therefore create humans with tails and gills!

 

Another aspect of genomes is that all living organisms at the molecular level, from trees to fish to salamanders to mosquitoes to humans, are based on DNA. All living organisms are related. The parts (genes) are interchangeable. So a gene from bacteria can be inserted in corn DNA, and regularly is done to create a genetically modified corn designed to withstand high doses of herbicides. Researches can take genes that make glow worms glow and insert them into mouse DNA and end up with a mouse that glows. In theory, the genetics that produces chlorophyll in plants could be inserted into human DNA, resulting in green humans. CRISPR technology is rapidly becoming finer tuned, faster, and more accurate as computer power increases. There is no biological reason that labs can’t one day create living creatures that are collections of genetic instructions from many different organisms.

 

What does that say for the future of humans? Suppose we identify a specific gene for intelligence or musical ability or physical stamina. The genomes of developing fetuses could be modified to reflect these characteristics. We could also turn off the genes that might be responsible for undesirable physical characteristics, in essence creating the current ideal of a “perfect” human. Most of the world’s countries have drawn the line at human genetic manipulation but China is forging ahead. Probably very soon other countries will abandon their moratoriums and follow the same path, simply because they don’t want to be left behind.

 

This is not science fiction. We are at the beginning of the genetic age, which could not have happened if not for the tremendous gains in computer power. Direct neural (nerve)/computer interfacing is already at the stage where special computers can be controlled with thought alone. Recently, researchers were able to create a “link” where three isolated people could experience/share the same thought without verbal communication.

 

To repeat a phrase, which some take as a warning and others a challenge: How far down this rabbit hole do we want to go?

 

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