John_Maxwell_IV comments on Thoughts on minimizing designer baby drama - Less Wrong

17 [deleted] 12 May 2015 11:22AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (194)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: John_Maxwell_IV 15 May 2015 04:04:24AM 0 points [-]

I think sequencing is what lets you measure genes, not modify them.

Comment author: skeptical_lurker 15 May 2015 07:31:13AM 2 points [-]

Indeed, but I think it depends whether you used germline selection or germline modification. IIRC, in germline selection you create many embryos, sequence the genes, and select the embryo with the best genes.

Also, if the cost of sequencing goes down very fast, I would have thought this provides some evidence that the cost of modification would drop at a similar rate. Of course, there is already genetic modification of crops - do you know how that has changed in cost over time?

Comment author: John_Maxwell_IV 15 May 2015 06:40:37PM 0 points [-]

Good point. I don't know about crops.