[DOOMED] Scientists Release Controversial Genetically Modified Mosquitoes In High-Security Lab

you might enjoy this

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2821864/

 

The Germans have come up with a plan that doesn't involve the same environmental risk and are currently working in labs as we speak to develop enormous gigantic hands to squash all mosquitoes carrying malaria.

 

Did they say that Jukes never actually study DDT? I think I'm team Wurster in that debate lol.

Are you actually arguing for DDT or was your original post tongue in cheek with this just being an interesting article about a famous debate? I'm sorry I can't tell.

 

@Jontro might be interested in those hands if the Germans can come up with a way to attach them to the end of his arms. Not for squishing bugs, though.

 

actually DDT has saved millions of lives, the environmental effects (eggshell thinning and the like) were the result of indiscriminate aerial spraying over large tracts of land. Focused, indoor spraying continues to be the weapon of choice for fighting malaria.

 

What's your opinion on it being banned in the vast majority of countries?

 

I've listed to a few podcasts where scientists talked about this to stop the spread of diseases such as Malaria. Most of them say to do it. I don't buy it. I'm far removed from the risks of contracting malaria, but seems like it could have many more unforeseen consequences, obviously one of which is the food chain.

And from a more philosophical point of view, if we have the chance to stop all diseases, should we?

 

Wat.

 

That's a question with an easy answer, at least from me. Of course.

 

I honestly don't know how that can even come across as a question to someone. Certainly not one from a "philosophical point of view".

 

Disney/Marvel trying to create fully-controlled arthropod-bitten superhero.

 

that's fine, if countries can afford the alternatives. There are roughly a dozen countries (e.g., India) where it is still in use, and again residual indoor spraying is very effective as a means of control

 

Should we all be able to live forever? Isn't Death a part of Life? Aren't hardships including overcoming disease, succumbing to disease, or being affected by disease (i.e. family/friends/etc.) a part of this? No one wants that for himself, but trials are what makes us.

 

you might have missed all the discussion over the years about destroying the very last smallpox virus samples

https://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/microbe-matters/to_destroy_or_to_not/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scie...ving-samples-virus-causes-smallpox-180951321/
https://www.the-scientist.com/opini...stocks-are-too-valuable-to-be-destroyed-57712

 

one of the classic philosophical papers on immortality is Bernard Williams's paper on the Makropulos case. Williams argued that if we lived forever we would (not) die of boredom from the tedium of immortality

https://wmpeople.wm.edu/asset/index/cvance/williams

 

I'll check that out later.
I do know that Frankl (Man's Search for Meaning) does argue that death is (or rather, in part) what gives life meaning.

 

Genetically modified animals...nature always finds a way to evolve and undo what humans have engineered. period.