Genetic engineering Vice HBO

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Posted on Feb 6, 2016, 4:57 am

#1

Just finished watching the new episode of Vice on HBO. The second part was about PGD(preimplantation genetic diagnosis) where you can remove and fertilize a number of human egg cells in a controlled environment, and do a genetic evaluation to "pick and choose" the embryo with the most desired traits, eg. sex, eye color, height, weight(similar to the movie Gattaca). This technology is supposed to be mainstream in about 5 years. I guess that means that our children won't have to worry about LL because they will be preselected to be tall, LOL.

One thing I found pretty funny is the way that the hottie female host Isobel Yeung, got all "wet" when the doc she interviewed confirmed that "height" was going to be a trait that will be preselected by future parents. I guess she said fck it to being politically correct about genetic engineering if it meant eliminating short people from the human race.

Have a look at the program if you have HBO, or it should be up on youtube in a few hours.

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Vendetta113

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Posted on Feb 6, 2016, 5:13 am

#2

Doubt this would become mainstream. This is genetic engineering we're talking about. It's most likely going to be extremely expensive, if not outright illegal. Besides, I don't think 2nd-3rd world countries are going to care about this.

Even if short men were to go extinct right now at this very moment, as long as short women exist, short men will continue to exist. Also, even if the child's height is preselected to become tall, mutations and other factors will still play in how tall the child is going to be.

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TIBIKE200

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Posted on Feb 6, 2016, 2:57 pm

#3

Quote from: ouroboros on February 06, 2016, 04:57:05 AMJust finished watching the new episode of Vice on HBO. The second part was about PGD(preimplantation genetic diagnosis) where you can remove and fertilize a number of human egg cells in a controlled environment, and do a genetic evaluation to "pick and choose" the embryo with the most desired traits, eg. sex, eye color, height, weight(similar to the movie Gattaca). This technology is supposed to be mainstream in about 5 years. I guess that means that our children won't have to worry about LL because they will be preselected to be tall, LOL.

One thing I found pretty funny is the way that the hottie female host Isobel Yeung, got all "wet" when the doc she interviewed confirmed that "height" was going to be a trait that will be preselected by future parents. I guess she said fck it to being politically correct about genetic engineering if it meant eliminating short people from the human race.

Have a look at the program if you have HBO, or it should be up on youtube in a few hours.

Are you sure she really got all that "wet" and you didnt just overly focused on that part? What did she say when he told her that in the future everyone will be tall?

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ouroboros

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Posted on Feb 6, 2016, 6:03 pm

#4

Quote from: TIBIKE200 on February 06, 2016, 02:57:20 PM Are you sure she really got all that "wet" and you didnt just overly focused on that part? What did she say when he told her that in the future everyone will be tall?

Her reaction when she heard "height" was pure disbelief. She had to ask the doctor a second time to confirm that she actually heard height.
Her body language is a dead giveaway during this whole incident.

When she heard you can preselect eye color, screen for diseases, etc., that did not faze her, but height was the one that did it for her. I'm surprised they didn't mention skin color, or at least tone, because then we would have a riot the next day. But apparently it's ok to consider height discrimination politically correct.

The episode will be airing again at 5am eastern standard time Sunday in the U.S. for those that have HBO.

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Alu

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Posted on Feb 6, 2016, 6:48 pm

#5

Quote from: ouroboros on February 06, 2016, 06:03:45 PMHer reaction when she heard "height" was pure disbelief. She had to ask the doctor a second time to confirm that she actually heard height.
Her body language is a dead giveaway during this whole incident.

When she heard you can preselect eye color, screen for diseases, etc., that did not faze her, but height was the one that did it for her. I'm surprised they didn't mention skin color, or at least tone, because then we would have a riot the next day. But apparently it's ok to consider height discrimination politically correct.

The episode will be airing again at 5am eastern standard time Sunday in the U.S. for those that have HBO.

Funny that someone who isn't objectionably short is offended by this so much...

Either way I saw it and noooo lol. It was more like a follow up question for a statement the doctor made. She seemed much more surprised by how little time it will take until height can genetically modified, rather then joy at modifying height itself.

This leads to other points; Wouldn't women benefit just a much from this procedure as males? Why assume she was being discriminatory against guys? Also what pleasure can she, or anyone on this current generation have from genetically modified children that are going to be conceived by THIS generation? There wouldn't be anything wrong it slowly increasing the populations height across the board..

Lastly, considering the procedure, this really won't effect most of us that much...I doubt the national height average for males (in the U.S) is going to skyrocket to 6'0 in the next 100 years. If anything it might be our children (or grandchildren) who have to deal with this burden; but if you think about it logically, at that point wouldn't they also have the same opportunity to be taller? At least it might get rid of any awkward moments where our children won't be as tall as us because we artificially enhanced our height; so to that end, I welcome this advancement. If only because it also does more meaningful good....like eradicating actual diseases...

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Quote from: ouroboros on February 06, 2016, 06:03:45 PMHer reaction when she heard "height" was pure disbelief. She had to ask the doctor a second time to confirm that she actually heard height.
Her body language is a dead giveaway during this whole incident.

When she heard you can preselect eye color, screen for diseases, etc., that did not faze her, but height was the one that did it for her. I'm surprised they didn't mention skin color, or at least tone, because then we would have a riot the next day. But apparently it's ok to consider height discrimination politically correct.

The episode will be airing again at 5am eastern standard time Sunday in the U.S. for those that have HBO.

Funny that someone who isn't objectionably short is offended by this so much...

Either way I saw it and noooo lol. It was more like a follow up question for a statement the doctor made. She seemed much more surprised by how little time it will take until height can genetically modified, rather then joy at modifying height itself.

This leads to other points; Wouldn't women benefit just a much from this procedure as males? Why assume she was being discriminatory against guys? Also what pleasure can she, or anyone on this current generation have from genetically modified children that are going to be conceived by THIS generation? There wouldn't be anything wrong it slowly increasing the populations height across the board..

Lastly, considering the procedure, this really won't effect most of us that much...I doubt the national height average for males (in the U.S) is going to skyrocket to 6'0 in the next 100 years. If anything it might be our children (or grandchildren) who have to deal with this burden; but if you think about it logically, at that point wouldn't they also have the same opportunity to be taller? At least it might get rid of any awkward moments where our children won't be as tall as us because we artificially enhanced our height; so to that end, I welcome this advancement. If only because it also does more meaningful good....like eradicating actual diseases...

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ouroboros

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Posted on Feb 6, 2016, 7:05 pm

#6

Quote from: Alu on February 06, 2016, 06:48:59 PMFunny that someone who isn't objectionably short is offended by this so much...

Either way I saw it and noooo lol. It was more like a follow up question for a statement the doctor made. She seemed much more surprised by how little time it will take until height can genetically modified, rather then joy at modifying height itself.

This leads to other points; Wouldn't women benefit just a much from this procedure as males? Why assume she was being discriminatory against guys? Also what pleasure can she, or anyone on this current generation have from genetically modified children that are going to be conceived by THIS generation? There wouldn't be anything wrong it slowly increasing the populations height across the board..

Lastly, considering the procedure, this really won't effect most of us that much...I doubt the national height average for males (in the U.S) is going to skyrocket to 6'0 in the next 100 years. If anything it might be our children (or grandchildren) who have to deal with this burden; but if you think about it logically, at that point wouldn't they also have the same opportunity to be taller? At least it might get rid of any awkward moments where our children won't be as tall as us because we artificially enhanced our height; so to that end, I welcome this advancement. If only because it also does more meaningful good....like eradicating actual diseases...

I welcome this advancement too, it's good for the greater good of humanity. Unfortunately there are going to be abuses of this.

I just found it interesting that they were so comfortable and excited talking about eliminating "shortness" with this technology.

Edit Post

Quote from: Alu on February 06, 2016, 06:48:59 PMFunny that someone who isn't objectionably short is offended by this so much...

Either way I saw it and noooo lol. It was more like a follow up question for a statement the doctor made. She seemed much more surprised by how little time it will take until height can genetically modified, rather then joy at modifying height itself.

This leads to other points; Wouldn't women benefit just a much from this procedure as males? Why assume she was being discriminatory against guys? Also what pleasure can she, or anyone on this current generation have from genetically modified children that are going to be conceived by THIS generation? There wouldn't be anything wrong it slowly increasing the populations height across the board..

Lastly, considering the procedure, this really won't effect most of us that much...I doubt the national height average for males (in the U.S) is going to skyrocket to 6'0 in the next 100 years. If anything it might be our children (or grandchildren) who have to deal with this burden; but if you think about it logically, at that point wouldn't they also have the same opportunity to be taller? At least it might get rid of any awkward moments where our children won't be as tall as us because we artificially enhanced our height; so to that end, I welcome this advancement. If only because it also does more meaningful good....like eradicating actual diseases...

I welcome this advancement too, it's good for the greater good of humanity. Unfortunately there are going to be abuses of this.

I just found it interesting that they were so comfortable and excited talking about eliminating "shortness" with this technology.

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Alu

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Posted on Feb 6, 2016, 7:08 pm

#7

Quote from: ouroboros on February 06, 2016, 07:05:44 PMI welcome this advancement too, it's good for the greater good of humanity. Unfortunately there are going to be abuses of this.

I just found it interesting that they were so comfortable and excited talking about eliminating "shortness" with this technology.

To each their own..but it certainly wasn't really about eliminating that trait/quality in the general population

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Penguinn

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Posted on Feb 6, 2016, 7:35 pm

#8

Something so rare, unheard of and complex becoming "mainstream" or affordable to over 0.001% people in 5 years is impossible. But even if hell freezes and it does happen, I doubt many people would risk doing something so complex rather than just have their baby. Most people will think "let's see how this turns out for others first" and by the time they find out, they'll be past baby-making age.

Maybe in 20-25 years.

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TIBIKE200

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Posted on Feb 7, 2016, 12:29 am

#9

I think that by shortness they meant eliminating extreme cases of shortness and not those that fall within the spectrum of normality... Also, there something like 150 genes controlling height.. So I dont think it will be possible to control them... Same with weight and many other traits...

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ouroboros

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Posted on Feb 7, 2016, 12:57 am

#10

Quote from: TIBIKE200 on February 07, 2016, 12:29:41 AMI think that by shortness they meant eliminating extreme cases of shortness and not those that fall within the spectrum of normality... Also, there something like 150 genes controlling height.. So I dont think it will be possible to control them... Same with weight and many other traits...

It's actually quite scary when you think about what they are doing. One part of the program talks about the research that is going on with mice and how humans share 85% of the genetic code with them. In their lab, they have mice that are bred completely bald, others missing the metabolism gene so they gain a lot of weight. Human testing is not too far away in the future.

These are a couple of quotes that I like from the program.....

"There is the danger of more advantaged people in society today becoming even more advantaged, and that is very dangerous"

"If you have a time machine, and you travel 1000 years into the future, and brought a child back to today, that kid would be superman"

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