this has nothing to do with trading, but i know there are some smart people who visit this site, so i figured i'd post this here.. first, i have to say, i don't really know too much about genetics. however, i have an interesting idea. i'm sure i'm not the first person to think of it, but i'll post it anyway. i totally believe in the future we will modify our dna. once we understand what all our genes do, i think it is only a matter of time before we are eliminating bad genes and eventually choosing our children's eye color. personally, i'm not against any of this. i'm not religious, so god is not a factor for me. i know many people will fundamentally disagree with this, but IT WILL HAPPEN..it may take generations to be accepted though. anyway, if you take my premise that we edit dna to choose our children's eye color, you may feel that since we are already alive, it is too late to change our dna. for example, say you find out you have some type of cancer gene. since you are already born, you might think there's nothing you can do about it...but you could filter that gene out for your children. today, i thought of this.. please remember i don't know too much about this stuff... anyway, i've heard that a virus, like aids, will take over a cell and modify the cell's dna to have it reproduce the aids virus. i think the same is for cancer cells. they go bad and reproduce. well here's my idea.... once you modified your dna how you want it, could you create some type of virus that would slowly go through your body and change over all your cells to the better version of your own dna? with my idea, even though you are already born, you could still benefit from genetic engineering. just to clarify, here's one more example. say you have brown eyes but you want blue eyes. you modify your dna and change the brown to blue. then you create a virus that has the new dna. you put it in your body and it takes over the old cells and replaces it with your new dna. maybe over time, your eye color could slowly change from brown to blue as old cells die and new cells are created with the modified dna. i know this may sound far fetched and i don't know much about this stuff, but i think my idea is at least interesting!
here's another example..... say you're bald and you don't like being bald. a company could draw some blood, look at your dna, change the bald gene to a non balding gene. create a type of virus that has your new, edited dna. it takes over your current cells and new ones are produced with the modified dna. as cells die and new ones are created, maybe over time your hair would grow back?? lol
There are DOZENS of companies expected to release what are called gene transfer products over the next few years. Those of you thinking such technology is years away are going to be completely blown away with the speed at which this technology changes the lives of those who can afford it. At the present time, scientists are just finishing perfecting the process of growing new organs internally on the host's bodies ... i.e. if I need a new heart in the future, it will be relicated internally, right next to the diseased one. When it is mature, I go in for an operation, transfer the blood vessels from the old to the new and remove the damaged/diseased old heart. The new heart is genetically identical (no rejection) and of course new, so it has a 70-80 year life expectancy. I project that within 5 years this will be a new experiemental procedure, within 10 years normal procedure and within 20 years, completely commonplace and cheap. Now think about this ... if you can replace ANY organ in your body with a new perfect (maybe the replacement does not have the genetic defects of the old organ) one ... what is you life expectancy ??? 120 years minimum I would say. The only organ irreplacable should be the brain. I give them 50 years to figure out how to repair/replace that one. Now think of the investment opportunities (short funeral homes/crematory equipment makers) and potential social problems (will the govt pay me my Social Security for an extra 100 years ??) If you want the future for your children, watch the movie GATTACA (a clever play on the enzyme sequences in DNA). You and I will be completely obsolete and any non-enhanced children will be DOOMED to a life of servitude. I kid you not, the next 50 years are going to make the last 100 look like super slow motion as far as technology advance and social change is concerned ... every week in the news is a new genetic breakthru ... Heard the one about the Japanese scientists who added spinach DNA to a pig ? (they want to make a pig that is healthier to eat) Done. An ear growing on the back of a mouse ? Done. Genetically identical kidney tissue growing and functioning correctly in a cow ? Done. Just read a little and you will be utterly amazed at what has ALREADY been done. Personally, I figure there is a 90 percent chance my kids will be alive and kicking in 2150. Just hope their non-enhanced selves can get a job to support their old man
skerbitz, that was what my posts were about. i've thought for a while now that people will be made better in the future. i always thought the non-enhanced would be doomed. but then yesterday i thought of the idea for a virus type thing that changes the dna of people already living. that could be used on people like us. i'm not saying it's possible, but at least it's an idea.
GG You're right ! like I said it's called gene transfer technology, and while it is not perfected, it is quite close. Give it a few more years. My guess is that you will be able to change such things as eye color and hair (or lack thereof) fairly easily, but other things may be a bit more difficult (growing a third leg ... no pun intended) or nearly impossible or certainly inadvisable (changing your IQ). Do a search on google for 'gene transfer company' and you'll get lots of hits ... here is one http://www.amaxa.com/ and actually the techology has gone past the viral idea already. I read somewhere where a company is working on an oral pill which you plug in the genes you want to change and then just swallow it ... ta da ! new hair ! (or how about gills for swimming) the possibilities are endless and shocking.
this is kind of silly, but what if we edited dna to create a person with a brain 100x the normal size? maybe they'd be a super smart person and they could figure out all kinds of stuff for us. lol anyone remember mother brain from the nintendo game metroid?
'but what if we edited dna to create a person with a brain 100x the normal size?' then you'd have to buy a bigger car ... and you wouldn't fit thru most doorways ... besides I think it's already been done ... some of the guys around this forum seem to think they already do have HUGE brains
i'm 24 and i never finished college. sometimes i think about going back just for the sake of finishing. i have attended 3 different colleges and got 4.0 each time. however, i was never really happy and when i started making money trading, i quit. when i think about going back to school, finance and genetics seem to interest me the most. i don't need a finance degree to trade for myself, so that makes me lean towards genetics. i'd appreciate it if any of you could give me some advice here. if i'm interested in genetics, what type of school should i go to, what degree should i get, and how do the jobs pay?
As a computer programmer who has done maintenance on some pretty complex systems created by humans, I am scared witless about the genetic engineering that's coming in the future. I don't know how many times I've seen tiny little changes made to complex systems that eventually produced hugh errors down the road. It's the down the road stuff that really worries me. Genetic science may produce exactly what was intended in the first generation. But can it really predict what will happened by the Nth generation down the line? What will happend if different changes start to interact with each other N generations down? I'm afraid we will really Dilbert our gene pool and we won't know it until its too late. And don't forget that if you can make a virus that alters the color of your eyes, you can also make a virus that can act as a targeted weapon. Suppose some Evil Doers where able to find out what the genetic difference is between themselves and everybody else and had the technology to create a gene altering virus that would kill only people who were not themselves? (another good argument for getting rid of Sadam Hussein?) Suppose that worked the other way around, where there would be a genetics arms race to use the virus on the Evil Doers before they used it on us? (Quick! Call Tom Ridge!) Well, its all just the same old story of the promises and dangers of technology. But it seems to me that acceleration of technology is finally bringing us to the point where we can't control the evil use of it. We were lucky that atomic energy required high level science and hugh capitalization. This genetic stuff may be easier for Evil Doers to get a hold of once the know-how gets out. It would just require cost of a good lab.