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    Genetics and the Atom.. Archived Message

    Posted by Gerard on December 23, 2019, 8:20 pm, in reply to "The rise of identity politics is a reminder of Haldane's worst fears about genetic manipulation"

    "Over the past few decades, we have lived in a time when scientific objectivity is often confused for apolitical neutrality. Climate change aside, scientists hardly ever took political stances, or expressed their views on matters of ideology, or occupied the sphere of the public-interest intellectual."

    What is overlooked is the effect of "don't think calculate" (paraphr.), whereby mankind's ability to (apparently), dominate the atom is considered an inalienable right..as superconductors have improved and power been made more available the notion has developed that we will truly become "as Gods" if we could only smash the universe into small enough pieces...such literal reductionism has a universal effect alright..on the consciousness of all that is...such assumptions (and hubris), lead to statements like the following;

    "In his most famous essay, Daedalus, Haldane warned that as humanity refines its skills to manipulate its own genes, it will have to construct a new morality to deal with these powers responsibly. He recognised a fundamental truth: genetics is the science of differences and with such a science, the invasion of politics is inevitable."

    ...If one questions the very basis of such "science" the question/notion of a "a new morality to deal with" does not arise...we should prevent damage to the genome in the first place by dealing with the environmental causes of endocrinal and genetic damage......not pander to the market (and establishment science),

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