Monday, March 17, 2025

Questions MAR 18

Presentation: Tara [and Martha?]


Beyond

1. What is CRISPR and what does it often produce?

2. What moral imperative does Julian Savulescu say we have?

3. How have efforts to control evolution changed over the last century and a half?

4. What are eutelegenesis and Bokanovsky's Process?

5. What did Matt Ridley say would save us?

6. Who is Ray Kurzweil and what is SU?

7. Who is Raymond McCauley and what did he predict?

8. What is Peter Diamandis's Orwellian vision?

DQ
  • Is it bad that CRISPR has received so much attention from science journalists and pundits in popular media?
  • Would it be unethical not to use an available AND reliable technology to produce "better" children? How should we understand "better"?176
  • Will eugenics become "acceptable and widespread again"? 177
  • Is it appropriate for researchers to aim to cure diseased molecules, rather than patients? 179
  • What do you think of "procreative beneficence"? 181
  • Do you agree that happier, healthier humans are more likely to result from a focus on nurture, not nature? 184
  • Is the Singularity near?
  • Are medical tricorders coming soon? 190
  • Are Singularitarians mostly "confirmed atheists" and "progressive capitalist utopians"? 191
  •  Are you thrilled and concerned about the future of "enhancement"? 193
  • Are you as dispirited by transhumanists as Corey Pein? 

Code Breaker (CB) Part 2, CRISPR
  1. What was Francisco Mojica's really amazing discovery? 74
  2. What hadn't the microbiologists yet done, when Doudna meet with Jillian Banfield? 80
  3. How did Martin Jinkek describe RNA? 85
  4. What's Matt Ridley's point about scientific innovation? 90
  5. Why is it important to do experiments in vitro? 94
  6. Why didn't Doudna's move to Genentech work out? 102
  7. Women in science tend to be what, and with what result? 110-11
  8. What was a "turnoff to venture capitalists" when Doudna and Rachel Haurwitz were founding their company? 117
  9. What statement of Emmanuelle Charpentier enticed Doudna to want to work with her? 127-8
  10. What "made the single-guide system particularly significant"? 135
  11. What did Charpentier want to do, rather than make gene-editing tools? 140
  12. What did Doudna say to her competitor Barrangou about withdrawing his and his partner's paper pending publication? 149

3 comments:

  1. Who is Ray Kurzweil and what is SU?

    Ray Kurzweil is an American inventor, futurist, and author known for his work in artificial intelligence. Kurzweil is also famous for his predictions about the future of technology, particularly in AI and the concept of the Singularity. SU refers to Singularity University, an organization co-founded by Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis. SU is an educational and business incubator that focuses on leveraging exponential technologies to solve global challenges. It aims to prepare individuals and businesses for the rapid technological changes expected in the coming decades.

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  2. 1. What is CRISPR and what does it often produce?

    CRISPR is a gene-editing technology that allows scientists to precisely modify DNA in living organisms. CRISPR often produces gene knockouts and corrections, GMO's, and models for medical research.

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  3. Is the Singularity near?

    I think the Singularity is in the near future but not necessarily as close as we think. Although it may appear AI is coming close to surpassing human intelligence, the human brain is still a unique and complex organ that I don't think can ever be replicated by AI.

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