Transhumanists that call themselves the extra pians are against entropy they're like a refrigerator i'm very sad yet it's a bad idea but it's going to get us in the end. "The machine that is not simply like a computer set of instructions do this do that because it's got this interactive nature at the heart of its very being," he says. 'We depend on these metaphors to try to get our mind around something that may just be a one-off thing'
Shermer and Cobb discuss: objections to genetic engineering (political, religious, cultural) • selective breeding • recombinant DNA • the ethics of genetics • patenting life • gene therapy • gene editing • CRISPR • literature and films on the dangers of genetic engineering • bioweapons • 3 Laws of Behavior Genetics and what people fear about it.
Matthew Cobb is a professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Manchester. He is the author of six books: The Idea of the Brain: A History; Life’s Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code; Generation; The Resistance: The French Fight Against the Nazis; Eleven Days in August: The Liberation of Paris in 1944; and Smell: A Very Short Introduction. He lives in England.