(As a IT person I intuitively want the source code to feel safe. Maybe that is asking too much.)
We're talking about making small hacks to a system that's horribly complicated, undocumented, was written by Azatoth with goals in mind that don't match ours anyway. Yeah, we may not understand much about the hacks we're making, but we didn't understand much about the original system either.
You know the expression »never touch a running system«. With the plants available there is long term data, and you know what you get. With big changes there are all kinds of risks involved that can not be foreseen. Including the possibility for side effects. Can you assure a small hack is really just small?
I was raised to believe that genetically-modified foods are unhealthy to eat and bad for the environment, and given a variety of reasons for this, some of which I now recognize as blatantly false (e.g., human genetic code is isomorphic to fundamental physical law), and a few of which still seem sort of plausible.
Because of this history, I need to anchor my credence heavily downward from my sense of plausibility.
The major reasons I see to believe that GMOs are safe are:
The major reason I see to believe that GMOs are dangerous is:
So: green goo, yes or no?