THE TRANSHUMANIST SCRAPBOOK: MIT AND SELECTIVE GENE REPAIR: EXPLICIT ...

There's been another important development in the "quadrangle" of GRIN technologies(genetics, robotics, information processing, and nanotechnology) that form the Tranhumanist movement's vision of the "singularity", and this time it's in the world of genetics:

Editing the genome with high precision

There are some key paragraphs here:

"The new system is much more user-friendly, Zhang says. Making use of naturally occurring bacterial protein-RNA systems that recognize and snip viral DNA, the researchers can create DNA-editing complexes that include a nuclease called Cas9 bound to short RNA sequences. These sequences are designed to target specific locations in the genome; when they encounter a match, Cas9 cuts the DNA.

"This approach can be used either to disrupt the function of a gene or to replace it with a new one. To replace the gene, the researchers must also add a DNA template for the new gene, which would be copied into the genome after the DNA is cut.

Each of the RNA segments can target a different sequence. “That’s the beauty of this — you can easily program a nuclease to target one or more positions in the genome,” Zhang says.

The method is also very precise — if there is a single base-pair difference between the RNA targeting sequence and the genome sequence, Cas9 is not activated. This is not the case for zinc fingers or TALEN. The new system also appears to be more efficient than TALEN, and much less expensive."(Emphasis added)

You'll note that while previous genetic splicing and dicing was a more hit-and-miss affair, this new technique allows the targeting of a specific gene, and that this targeting can be used either to alter a specific gene's function, or replace it with an entirely new one.

The process appears already to have been utilized to correct a liver disorder in laboratory mice by correcting a mutated gene causing the disorder:

Erasing a genetic mutation

This is all, so far as it goes, good news, and especially for people suffering liver disorders which could presumably be corrected by altering the function of a mutated gene, or simply removing it and replacing it with a gene causing healthy liver function. One can imagine more extensions of this technology to, say, the pancreas and the problem of diabetes which many have long suspected to have some genetic correlation, or perhaps even deadly pancreatic cancer.

As with all emerging technologies, however, there are implicit dangers as well, and we've seen some of them already evident with the GMO issue: what are the long-term intergenerational effects of such technologies? Will their development enhance, or ultimately inhibit, natural evolutionary processes, the very processes which have, for example, built up immune systems? If genetic therapies are widely practiced on a generation for various chronic illnesses, what, if any, will be the effect on their offspring's natural ability to ward off disease through the immune system? It is a cautionary lesson that the GMO issue has only all too starkly reminded us of: falling crop yields, and a growing concern in the literature that the GMO foods are causing various health problems, including, if you'll recall, declining litters in a Danish pig farmer's pigs when fed a steady diet of GMOs.

And as you'll have guessed, there are also greater possibilities available in the creation of chimeras, blends of DNA from one species with that of another, for now specific areas and genes can be targeted and their functions modified or simply be replaced.

Of course, these are the concerns of an amateur, of a non-scientist and non-geneticist. But it is the essence of science at any given moment to be proven wrong over time, and with that lesson in mind, before jumping on any confident medical assurances - after all, the medical and drug industry is always truthful, right? - we need to insist that technologies affecting the very processes of all life be subject to the most rigorous inter-generational testing possible, and that any human volunteers for tests of new therapies be fully apprised of the implicit possibilities.

(My thanks to Mr. M.D. for sharing these important articles.)

See you on the flip side...

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Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

14 Comments

  1. matthew.leonard on September 4, 2014 at 4:12 pm

    Hi Joseph,
    I’m new here so I’m not sure where this is the ideal place to send you a message.
    I’ve just finished reading your book ‘Transhumanism’ and I thought I would go to my online e-book collection to search something up relating to your book.
    I happen to come across the book is called ‘Cosmic Consciousness: The Man-God Whom we await’ by Alexander McIvor-Tyndall which I downloaded back in March 2013. I think the only reason I brought the book was because I brought Jeremy Narby’s book a couple of days before and I guess it has similar themes. I can’t find much on the guy but he seems to be a shady figure, having connections to the Freemasons and also he mentions the Illuminati a couple of times in the book (Judge that for yourself, I haven’t read the book just skimmed through some pages the interested me). He talks about the androgynous transformation for man in the context of reaching the esoteric belief of ‘illumination’.

    I urge you to look at the book as it seems there are some nuggets of information I’m sure will interest you. He also wrote a book called ‘Sex- The Unknown Quantity. The Spiritual Function of Sex.’ where he talks about Eugenics in regards to the Greeks and Romans. Alexander also has a book called ‘Ghosts, A message from the Illuminati’.
    Your book has given be a fresh perspective on transhumanism and how it ties in to the our ancient past. I’ve got many questions that need answering as I’ve been interested in the esoteric philosophy and beliefs for some while, however as soon as I thought I understood at least the basics of the topic. A book like yours comes along and totally changes my perspective on the topic.
    All the best,
    Matthew



    • Joseph P. Farrell on September 5, 2014 at 2:22 pm

      Matthew, You can use the contact button on the website to contact me. I get lots of emails so any response I make is likely to be short. I DO do members’ vidchats on Friday evenings where we talk about questions in more detail. I have people email me questions or topics they’d like to talk about, and I talk about them live. There’s an interactive chat room as well.



    • Lost on September 5, 2014 at 2:53 pm

      matthew.leonard:

      Haven’t read the books you cite, not Farrell one either.

      But the idea that sex, religion, and spirituality are entwined is not new.

      There are ancient Egyptian tales, giant pyramids in the jungle of south India.

      The prohibitions on sex by the protestant and catholic branches of Christianity.

      And then Wilhelm Reich, and lots of others.



  2. loisg on September 4, 2014 at 12:14 am

    Well, Isn’t the real goal is to be able to switch on some of those DNA strands that are now switched off, and in the process live forever with self-healing bodies? So this is a significant step in that direction.



    • MQ on September 4, 2014 at 12:21 pm

      The only people who’d be in line for self-healing, living “forever” would be the self-same vampire oligarchs who are already ruining the paradise that is Earth. They *might* consider regeneration for soldiers, but only to slaughter the perceived enemies of the oligarchy.



    • Vader_Etro on September 4, 2014 at 2:16 pm

      Dear loisg,

      A book that may be of interest to you, and the book which I read immediately after having read Dr. Farrell’s TRANSHUMANISM, is SAPIENS RISING: The View From 2100, Beyond the Babel-factor, A Manifesto For The Children Of The 21st Century, by Neil Freer.

      I do intend to read both works in tandem again someday, and I do recommend the reading of each in as much a ‘non-squint-eyed’ manner as is possible to the reader.



  3. TRM on September 3, 2014 at 8:04 pm

    Watch for a spin off company from MIT to be bought by Monsatano where all great ideas go to die and rise from the dead as evil zombies killing instead of helping.

    All because, well you know, lowering the population by raising the standard of living is just so 19th/20th century. Join the future. Food that makes you so dumb you don’t care that you’re incapable of reproducing.

    More soma please.



  4. DownunderET on September 3, 2014 at 5:58 pm

    For crying out loud, where’s Enki when you need him. I mean he started all this and left us with some pretty hairy faults. So in the future these mad scientists will be able to “whatever they desire”, and if that sounds familiar, then the Tower of Bable moment will come back to haunt us BIG TIME.



  5. marcos toledo on September 3, 2014 at 3:13 pm

    Anyone for the Ape-Human Super soldiers of the early Soviet Union. How about the rebooted Planet Of The Apes franchised soup up intelligent primates. Then there is always the non-biological killing machines perfect servants or almost perfect slaves who go into business for themselves who names are fill in the blank spaces. All well known science fiction memes.



  6. nobodyouwantoknow on September 3, 2014 at 2:33 pm

    I have developed myself into a hyper-hominid with multiple super-powers in a fairly simple manner ( by modern standards ):

    (1) collect and edit select super-hero movie scenes (e.g., Superman, Fantastic 4, &c ) into an MP4 video containing the super-powers you want to have;

    (2)Buy video goggles @ eBay ;

    (3) Install said goggles around your gonads before going to sleep ( or meditating or porning );

    (4) play-repeat the video in step (1) until it becomes you…

    (5) Enjoy your transhumanoidal hubris !

    P.S. — Warning : Excessive use ( viz., abuse ) of this methodology can cause testicular/ovarian transmogrification and mega-glandular hyper-‘nadularity !



  7. Robert Barricklow on September 3, 2014 at 11:50 am

    As if the genetic engineering wasn’t a bad enough two-faced Yahweh; there is synthetic biology(the gift to synthetic terrorism), where synthetic biologist generate new dna sequences the way programmers write code, creating new life forms. So good news for genetic engineering is also great news for synthetic biology(but bad news for the 99%[since the .001% are conducting these new living operas of asylum madness]). The tv-side aim to conjure up self-growing buildings, streetlight-replacing glowing trees, and medicines tailored to your body’s needs. But, alas, it’s much easier to create novel life-forms than to control how they function. So guess who the guinea pigs are going to be?
    OH! Here comes the FDA to the rescue Batman. No specialty labeling -because they are versions of already existing compound and thus have “generally recognized as safe” status/the new synthetic Evolva vanilla. Yeasts are coming on the synthetic-conveyor-belt-of-biological profit$ next.
    I’ll take some Frankenstein steak, potatos & corn. For dessert, some Dr. Moreau vanilla ice cream. Then I’ll sit outside the café watching “them” spray chemtrails, geo-engineering the atmosphere for all our corporatized guinea pig asses. It’s Live Action! corporate globalized transnational experiments galore.



  8. Aridzonan_13 on September 3, 2014 at 10:58 am

    How absolutely Atlantean.



  9. old97polarcat on September 3, 2014 at 9:09 am

    Could this process be used to influence intelligence?



  10. DanaThomas on September 3, 2014 at 8:47 am

    There are clear implications for the weaponization (already under way?) of genetic modifications.



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