From GloFish On Out
Dec. 3rd, 2003 10:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coalescentThe New York Times gets a bit speculative:
Interestingly, as the article goes on the writer focuses mostly on possible somatic modifications - changes that won't be passed on to anyone's children. Things like glowing skin, replacement hair (or no hair at all), enhanced athletic performance, or the wings from 'New Light On The Drake Equation'...
These things won't happen tomorrow, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a thrill out of seeing them move another step closer. As hard as I try, I can't see the human form as something sacrosanct; I can see that the technology has risks, and I'm sure there will be more than one terrible accident where procedures are performed with insufficient knowledge or technology, but fundamentally I find the possibilities exciting. I want the development of this technology to be steady and sober - although it probably won't be - but I definitely want to see it developed. And fashion statements are just the beginning; I sincerely doubt that germline modifications can be held off for more than a generation or two, and that's when the real fun starts.
Of course, it won't be exciting when it gets here. The future never is. The future isn't personalised transportatation systems and instantaneous global communication networks, it's traffic jams and livejournal memes. The future, when it happens, is mundane. But until it happens, I can live with the dreams.
Genetically modified GloFish, developed by injecting genes from sea coral into zebrafish eggs, will go on sale Jan. 5 in this country, according to Yorktown Technologies LP in Texas. The GloFish are red in regular light and glow fluorescent red under ultraviolet light. Similar fish, but with different genes for luminescence have been sold for several months in Taiwan.
This is the tipping point, when the world irrevocably turns toward the science-fiction fantasies of writers like Philip K. Dick and William Gibson, who envision biomedical technology permeating every corner of the marketplace, from global corporations on down to small-time illegal operations like stolen-car chop shops.
Interestingly, as the article goes on the writer focuses mostly on possible somatic modifications - changes that won't be passed on to anyone's children. Things like glowing skin, replacement hair (or no hair at all), enhanced athletic performance, or the wings from 'New Light On The Drake Equation'...
"I think there's a distinction between what you do to yourself and what you do to the larger environment," Dr. Silver said. Society looks askance at any attempt to change human evolution or tweak human nature in a way that will be passed on to posterity. But if you could engineer only yourself, there would be few limits.
These things won't happen tomorrow, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a thrill out of seeing them move another step closer. As hard as I try, I can't see the human form as something sacrosanct; I can see that the technology has risks, and I'm sure there will be more than one terrible accident where procedures are performed with insufficient knowledge or technology, but fundamentally I find the possibilities exciting. I want the development of this technology to be steady and sober - although it probably won't be - but I definitely want to see it developed. And fashion statements are just the beginning; I sincerely doubt that germline modifications can be held off for more than a generation or two, and that's when the real fun starts.
Of course, it won't be exciting when it gets here. The future never is. The future isn't personalised transportatation systems and instantaneous global communication networks, it's traffic jams and livejournal memes. The future, when it happens, is mundane. But until it happens, I can live with the dreams.
