<story><title>First Human Embryos Edited in U.S</title><url>https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608350/first-human-embryos-edited-in-us/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>plaidfuji</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve seen most of these arguments for and against gene editing before, but the fact of the matter is that it will come down to the economic competitiveness of nations, as always.&lt;p&gt;What concerns me in the long term is that gene editing will cause human genomes to converge to a single gold standard with proven mental and physical benefits, thereby reducing our species&amp;#x27; genetic diversity and leaving us more vulnerable to a mass extinction event. A &amp;quot;zero day exploit&amp;quot; that everyone missed in the popular new cancer-fighting edit.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pcnonpc</author><text>From an interview with Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary psychologist:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Q: What does that mean in human language?
A: Any given couple could potentially have several eggs fertilized in the lab with the dad’s sperm and the mom’s eggs. Then you can test multiple embryos and analyze which one’s going to be the smartest. That kid would belong to that couple as if they had it naturally, but it would be the smartest a couple would be able to produce if they had 100 kids. It’s not genetic engineering or adding new genes, it’s the genes that couples already have.&lt;p&gt;Q: And over the course of several generations you’re able to exponentially multiply the population’s intelligence.
A: Right. Even if it only boosts the average kid by five IQ points, that’s a huge difference in terms of economic productivity, the competitiveness of the country, how many patents they get, how their businesses are run, and how innovative their economy is.&lt;p&gt;Q: How does Western research in genetics compare to China’s?
A: We’re pretty far behind. We have the same technical capabilities, the same statistical capabilities to analyze the data, but they’re collecting the data on a much larger scale and seem to be capable of transforming the scientific findings into government policy and consumer genetic testing much more easily than we are. Technically and scientifically we could be doing this, but we’re not.&lt;p&gt;Q: Why not?
A: We have ideological biases that say, “Well, this could be troubling, we shouldn’t be meddling with nature, we shouldn’t be meddling with God.” I just attended a debate in New York a few weeks ago about whether or not we should outlaw genetic engineering in babies and the audience was pretty split. In China, 95 percent of an audience would say, “Obviously you should make babies genetically healthier, happier, and brighter!” There’s a big cultural difference.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.vice.com&amp;#x2F;en_us&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;5gw8vn&amp;#x2F;chinas-taking-over-the-world-with-a-massive-genetic-engineering-program&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.vice.com&amp;#x2F;en_us&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;5gw8vn&amp;#x2F;chinas-taking-over...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>First Human Embryos Edited in U.S</title><url>https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608350/first-human-embryos-edited-in-us/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>plaidfuji</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve seen most of these arguments for and against gene editing before, but the fact of the matter is that it will come down to the economic competitiveness of nations, as always.&lt;p&gt;What concerns me in the long term is that gene editing will cause human genomes to converge to a single gold standard with proven mental and physical benefits, thereby reducing our species&amp;#x27; genetic diversity and leaving us more vulnerable to a mass extinction event. A &amp;quot;zero day exploit&amp;quot; that everyone missed in the popular new cancer-fighting edit.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>alistairSH</author><text>Will it cause a convergence?  Or, a divergence, as we engineer people for specificity?  A dedicated military caste, intellectual caste, etc.</text></comment>