Enjoy your break from writing. I never read this one before. It seems to be a good overview of the angst lots of people are going to have about vaccines. Technologies are multiplying to create generalized tools for gene therapy. The implication will always be the "good and evil" application. My guess is the equilibrium of nature seems to have viruses as a vehicle to enforce flourish versus extinction.
Thanks Mark. I'm planning to look at gene therapy either this week or next. It's one of those which could do some really good things, but it's also frightening when the gene technologists start doing things with people.
I am certainly uneasy at times. However, I wrote an essay long ago to try to frame the argument to our human experience. The two examples that jump out at me are dogs and corn. We have become extraordinarily capable at shaping evolution and changing its time horizon. My son is an agricultural economist. The thing is, in the case of corn, in my early life the world was SURE billions of people would starve. The agricultural revolution was sort of a response to end hunger. The success of the green revolution was beyond anyone's dreams. We now have a weird outcome where obesity has risen to crisis levels around the globe. Humans are an amazing yet weird species. We are the only creature that can shape nature and that is an extreme distortion for the natural world. None of us can be sure how this experiment will turn out. Recently finished the book "The Sixth Extinction". It was a remarkable read.
A good overview of the situation ... thanks
Thanks Richard, I appreciate it.
Enjoy your break from writing. I never read this one before. It seems to be a good overview of the angst lots of people are going to have about vaccines. Technologies are multiplying to create generalized tools for gene therapy. The implication will always be the "good and evil" application. My guess is the equilibrium of nature seems to have viruses as a vehicle to enforce flourish versus extinction.
Thanks Mark. I'm planning to look at gene therapy either this week or next. It's one of those which could do some really good things, but it's also frightening when the gene technologists start doing things with people.
I am certainly uneasy at times. However, I wrote an essay long ago to try to frame the argument to our human experience. The two examples that jump out at me are dogs and corn. We have become extraordinarily capable at shaping evolution and changing its time horizon. My son is an agricultural economist. The thing is, in the case of corn, in my early life the world was SURE billions of people would starve. The agricultural revolution was sort of a response to end hunger. The success of the green revolution was beyond anyone's dreams. We now have a weird outcome where obesity has risen to crisis levels around the globe. Humans are an amazing yet weird species. We are the only creature that can shape nature and that is an extreme distortion for the natural world. None of us can be sure how this experiment will turn out. Recently finished the book "The Sixth Extinction". It was a remarkable read.