If genetic editing technology is first used by the wealthy, it may further exacerbate social inequality. This technology could be used to create a “super elite,” thereby further solidifying social stratification. The scenario of a “superbaby oligarchy” mentioned in the article is a worrying potential future.
I agree this is a worry. Apart from this stuff just not mattering because AI takes over first, dramatic acceleration of inequality is my biggest worry.
This tech almost certainly WILL accelerate inequality at the start. But in the long run I think there's no reason we can't make gene editing available for almost everyone.
Editing reagents are cheap. We're working with at most a few microliters of editing agents (more realistically a few nanoliters).
It costs a lot of money to collect the data and put it into biobanks, but once that is done you've got the data forever.
And at SCALE the cost of absolutely everything comes down.
If genetic editing technology is first used by the wealthy, it may further exacerbate social inequality. This technology could be used to create a “super elite,” thereby further solidifying social stratification. The scenario of a “superbaby oligarchy” mentioned in the article is a worrying potential future.