When your house is on fire you don’t start looking for package holidays to Pompeii, no matter how much you might learn. We have all the knowledge we need to avert the climate crisis, we just need action and resources dedicated to fixing it.
You’ll find that we have a lot of people on this planet, we can multitask. We can research genetic engineering, and green energy, and medical technology, and recycling processes, as well as things that don’t advance those immediate goals, like microprocessors, meta materials, superconductors, astrophysics, geology, mathematics, etc.
When your house will be burning for the next few hundred years and you still have to live in it because even on fire it’s the best house around, maybe just get on with your life and do something productive? Perhaps some of us can move out eventually, but it would take a lot of research in a lot of different fields, probably even genetics…
Something like learning to make perfect custom designed edits to genes, such abilities could easily save hundreds of millions when the next major plague or crop blight hits. We’ll definitely find ways to make hardier crops, that can survive harsher climates. Who knows, we could get so good at it that we could afford to just strengthen every species we can find with genes to help them survive the rapidly changing world, at least for long enough for us to turn things around. Maybe we could design lichens or mosses that could grow on Mars, adding oxygen to the atmosphere. Maybe we could learn to do even more impactful things that I can’t even think of right now (since I’m not even a biologist).
And maybe, just maybe, genetics isn’t even the only field that could turn out to be extraordinarily important to survival in the future. Maybe we should continue to pursue every field of science and engineering… Because fucking obviously we should.
So why mammoths? Why not? Bringing back the mammoth is just a bit of problem solving, it’s an exercise with a tangible goal.
We already do genetic modification for crops and disease research, bringing back mammoth lookalikes won’t help with that. There is no problem being solved here, the only end goal is chasing headlines to be able to say ‘we brought back mammoths’. It’s a pointless egotistical endeavour that helps no-one.
By all means correct me if I’m wrong, but genetic research is a broad field and advancements in one area do not necessarily lead to advancements in others. GMO crops have been around for decades now and I fail to see the value of what these researchers are attempting to do.
Well yes, the way your thinking about it is wrong, because advancements in one area can lead to advancements in other areas, and often they do. I mean it’s not a guarantee, it doesn’t “necessarily” happen that way, but nothing is guaranteed.
But then I’ve already made that argument, so I’m not sure why I’m bothering to say it again.
I was being sarcastic, I don’t want bio-engineered humans adapted for extreme heat, I want us to not let our planet get to that point in the first place.
It’s not going to happen. Genetic experiments on humans is banned in many countries and even if that weren’t the case you’re talking about an enormously expensive social program of intervening in an entire generation at conception. Maybe a few billionaires would do it, but they can afford to live comfortably anyway and they don’t care if a few serfs die of heat exhaustion.
When your house is on fire you don’t start looking for package holidays to Pompeii, no matter how much you might learn. We have all the knowledge we need to avert the climate crisis, we just need action and resources dedicated to fixing it.
You’ll find that we have a lot of people on this planet, we can multitask. We can research genetic engineering, and green energy, and medical technology, and recycling processes, as well as things that don’t advance those immediate goals, like microprocessors, meta materials, superconductors, astrophysics, geology, mathematics, etc.
When your house will be burning for the next few hundred years and you still have to live in it because even on fire it’s the best house around, maybe just get on with your life and do something productive? Perhaps some of us can move out eventually, but it would take a lot of research in a lot of different fields, probably even genetics…
Something productive like finding a fire extinguisher, or productive like recreating fluffy elephants into an ecosystem that no longer exists?
Something like learning to make perfect custom designed edits to genes, such abilities could easily save hundreds of millions when the next major plague or crop blight hits. We’ll definitely find ways to make hardier crops, that can survive harsher climates. Who knows, we could get so good at it that we could afford to just strengthen every species we can find with genes to help them survive the rapidly changing world, at least for long enough for us to turn things around. Maybe we could design lichens or mosses that could grow on Mars, adding oxygen to the atmosphere. Maybe we could learn to do even more impactful things that I can’t even think of right now (since I’m not even a biologist).
And maybe, just maybe, genetics isn’t even the only field that could turn out to be extraordinarily important to survival in the future. Maybe we should continue to pursue every field of science and engineering… Because fucking obviously we should.
So why mammoths? Why not? Bringing back the mammoth is just a bit of problem solving, it’s an exercise with a tangible goal.
We already do genetic modification for crops and disease research, bringing back mammoth lookalikes won’t help with that. There is no problem being solved here, the only end goal is chasing headlines to be able to say ‘we brought back mammoths’. It’s a pointless egotistical endeavour that helps no-one.
Well you’re the expert, you must be right.
By all means correct me if I’m wrong, but genetic research is a broad field and advancements in one area do not necessarily lead to advancements in others. GMO crops have been around for decades now and I fail to see the value of what these researchers are attempting to do.
Well yes, the way your thinking about it is wrong, because advancements in one area can lead to advancements in other areas, and often they do. I mean it’s not a guarantee, it doesn’t “necessarily” happen that way, but nothing is guaranteed.
But then I’ve already made that argument, so I’m not sure why I’m bothering to say it again.
What do you want the geneticists to do? They are educated in their domain, you can’t just plop them into another field
The applications of their work is likely plenty in medicine and bioengineering
I want them to stop pretending that resurrecting a cold adapted species into an ecosystem that is rapidly melting will do anything productive.
If they want to be helpful they can work out how to engineer humans that can survive 40 degree heat and breathe co2.
Maybe this is a step forward that direction? I mean I doubt poor prime will ever access it, even if that is what they’re doing.
No, fluffy mice is not a step in the direction of heat adapted humans.
That’s what they’re fucking doing by bringing back the mammoth…
They’ll run when they’re ready, but right now they’re learning to crawl. Or to put it differently, let them cook.
I was being sarcastic, I don’t want bio-engineered humans adapted for extreme heat, I want us to not let our planet get to that point in the first place.
Well that’s great and all, but what if that doesn’t happen? Would you rather be dead or living comfortably in a warmer climate?
It’s not going to happen. Genetic experiments on humans is banned in many countries and even if that weren’t the case you’re talking about an enormously expensive social program of intervening in an entire generation at conception. Maybe a few billionaires would do it, but they can afford to live comfortably anyway and they don’t care if a few serfs die of heat exhaustion.
Drought resistant crops, heat resistant corals, and rot resistant bamboo, please.