who polices this shit? just nerds running wild with no guardrails?
I've seen this movie/show before.
It doesn't end well for a whole slew of people.
This reminds me of Dr. Malcolm on Jurassic Park. "Your scientists were preoccupied on whether they could do this. They didn't think about whether they should". In my mind there could be consequences if some engineered cells/life forms got out into the wild.
While I regarded God as a tyrant I thought my sin a trifle; But when I knew Him to be my Father, then I mourned that I could ever have kicked against Him. When I thought God was hard, I found it easy to sin; but when I found God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion, I smote upon my breast to think that I could ever have rebelled against One who loved me so, and sought my good.” C. H. Spurgeon
That seems like a dangerously conceited and ignorant claim to make.
Reason #1 everyone should be forced to read science fiction.
Gain of function E. coli? What can go wrong?
Our forms of government and institutions are not prepared for the accelerating rate of technological advancement.
Meh. The explanation of what they did doesn't live up to the headline. All they did was replace a bunch of DNA that codes for A for bunch of different DNA that also codes for A. Just to prove they could. It's like a Ford and a Chevy both get you to the same place, so some scientist comes along and wonders, "Can I put a Ford engine in a Chevy body and make it run?" And then he did just that, just to prove he could, except he did it 100,000 times.
Our forms of government and institutions are not prepared for the accelerating rate of technological advancement.
They never have been. Regulation aught to trail innovation always and forever.