Horizon, Synthetic Biology ("playing god")

PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn · #1 by **PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn** » Jan 19, 2012 2:56 am

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01b45zh/Horizon_20112012_Playing_God/

some really cool stuff in there, but I felt Adam Rutherford was pandering towards god botherers too much.

proper ethical concerns were neglected, and repeatedly going on about playing god, but then not explaining why.. ffs, humans have been playing about with organisms genetic code for millennia, just previously in a hit/miss random method

jaydot · #2 by **jaydot** » Jan 23, 2012 6:51 am

he annoyed me with some of his silly remarks about 'going too far', 'do we have the right?' and other bollox. it detracted from the fascinating developments that have been made and the possibilities offered by the new discoveries and materials. woven silk to make artificial skin for burns patients was one that immediately sprang to mind when he showed off the 'spider' goats. his mock horror was unconvincing. should have let jim al kalil do the job. far more sensible and a lot less sensationalist.

Spearthrower · #3 by **Spearthrower** » Jan 23, 2012 6:19 pm

It's not 'playing God' - it's playing technologically competent human. Something I hope we get used to!

CdesignProponentsist · #4 by **CdesignProponentsist** » Jan 23, 2012 6:56 pm

Too late. We've been playing god as long as we've been making fire.

GenesForLife · #5 by **GenesForLife** » Jan 23, 2012 7:26 pm

jaydot wrote:he annoyed me with some of his silly remarks about 'going too far', 'do we have the right?' and other bollox. it detracted from the fascinating developments that have been made and the possibilities offered by the new discoveries and materials. woven silk to make artificial skin for burns patients was one that immediately sprang to mind when he showed off the 'spider' goats. his mock horror was unconvincing. should have let jim al kalil do the job. far more sensible and a lot less sensationalist.

But Jim's a physicist; Rutherford's a PhD in Genetics.

PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn · #6 by **PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn** » Jan 23, 2012 7:38 pm

GenesForLife wrote:
jaydot wrote:he annoyed me with some of his silly remarks about 'going too far', 'do we have the right?' and other bollox. it detracted from the fascinating developments that have been made and the possibilities offered by the new discoveries and materials. woven silk to make artificial skin for burns patients was one that immediately sprang to mind when he showed off the 'spider' goats. his mock horror was unconvincing. should have let jim al kalil do the job. far more sensible and a lot less sensationalist.

But Jim's a physicist; Rutherford's a PhD in Genetics.

TBH, I think thats what pissed me off the most about the show.
not only is there far too much pandering to religious nutjobs POV, but this is a guy with a degree in evolutionary biology and a PhD in genetics of the eye. he should be far more aware of the real ethical concerns, not this "shouldn't exist" BS.

crank · #7 by **crank** » Jan 23, 2012 7:54 pm

Cool, I got to go against nature myself, this is first time I got to try ExPatShield, a proxy for watching BritTV, I feel goddish and all matrixy

Spearthrower · #8 by **Spearthrower** » Jan 24, 2012 4:36 am

PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn wrote:
GenesForLife wrote:
jaydot wrote:he annoyed me with some of his silly remarks about 'going too far', 'do we have the right?' and other bollox. it detracted from the fascinating developments that have been made and the possibilities offered by the new discoveries and materials. woven silk to make artificial skin for burns patients was one that immediately sprang to mind when he showed off the 'spider' goats. his mock horror was unconvincing. should have let jim al kalil do the job. far more sensible and a lot less sensationalist.

But Jim's a physicist; Rutherford's a PhD in Genetics.

TBH, I think thats what pissed me off the most about the show.
not only is there far too much pandering to religious nutjobs POV, but this is a guy with a degree in evolutionary biology and a PhD in genetics of the eye. he should be far more aware of the real ethical concerns, not this "shouldn't exist" BS.

It is odd: he might as well be saying that bananas and dogs shouldn't exist, because it's only human artificial selection that has caused them to be in the form they are today. Synthetic Biology is just doing it with more precision and efficiency.