Colonizing Mars may require humanity to tweak its DNA

[Admin]

Genetic enhancement could allow humanity to push surprisingly far out into the final frontier.

Colonizing Mars may require humanity to tweak its DNA : Read more

 

[HumboldtRick]

Insanity. We can't even manage our own planet. We don't belong on other worlds until we can live on our own without destroying it.

 

[netdragon]

I suspect this is pretty typical. For all we know, we may be hybrids created to help colonize Earth.

 

[netdragon]

Insanity. We can't even manage our own planet. We don't belong on other worlds until we can live on our own without destroying it.

I don't think we have much of a choice. It may save our species and Earth to colonize places without physical life for spillover population. We'll need to figure out how to decrease our impact on Earth in parallel.

What I'd be more concerned about is damage we could do to other civilizations in the galaxy if we get FTL, based on our history on Earth.

 

[Edward Coulter]

Insanity. We can't even manage our own planet. We don't belong on other worlds until we can live on our own without destroying it.

That will never happen. Who could decide when all earth's people are living together amicably. Get over it and get on with the exploration and habitation. Our species needs to learn but sitting here (on earth) waiting for things to quiet down would mean never getting off the earth, never exploring other planets and never developing our minds. Stagnation is the alternative you are offering. I would not become much upset if we managed accidentally to destroy a herd of martian bacteria but it is more likely they would destroy the explorer. After all, they are the adapted ones.

Humans are not going to destroy this earth. Right they have done plenty damage but we are learning how to deal with it. One way to deal with it is to reduce our population by 3 to 4 billion people. Our high population is the enemy, as each person has a demand for resources which we are not going to be able to meet. We are not meeting the basic needs of billions now and it continues to get worse. How many cars do you own? How many do you absolutely NEED?

A far as damaging other civilizations is concerned, I am much more concerned that once they know we are here they will wage a war of extinction on us. They might more likely have the mind-set of the Japanese or Germans of the last century but with the super-weapons of an advanced civilization. Keep our heads down.

 

[TonyO]

Isn't this Transhumanism or Posthumanism?

 

[Space Doc]

Isn't this Transhumanism or Posthumanism?

Yes. :-|

 

[Space Doc]

"Genetic engineering and other advanced technologies "may need to come into play if people want to live and work and thrive, and establish their family, and stay on Mars," Kennda Lynch, an astrobiologist and geomicrobiologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston"

An astrobiologist/geomicrobiologist knows exactly ZERO about medicine and human genetics. LOL!

 

[KnowBuddy]

people can be so so so stupid. We can't get together to fix our challenges here on earth so we distract ourselves by wasting time and money on some ridiculous star wars fantasy

 

[Ephasius]

Underground is where to start and lessening the adaptive and development cycle times. This can be exploited here too. Eye adjustment for low lighting and mental performance should be step 1. Anywhere, caretaker colonies could be developed to assist specific ecologies.

 

[Ephasius]

people can be so so so stupid. We can't get together to fix our challenges here on earth so we distract ourselves by wasting time and money on some ridiculous star wars fantasy

Mankind has no shortage of flaws, but an opportunity to create something more adaptable makes a logical starting point when looking at the long term picture of survival and growth.

 

[SqueakyCamp]

"Genetic engineering and other advanced technologies "may need to come into play if people want to live and work and thrive, and establish their family, and stay on Mars," Kennda Lynch, an astrobiologist and geomicrobiologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston"

An astrobiologist/geomicrobiologist knows exactly ZERO about medicine and human genetics. LOL!

I hope you realize, that DNA and genetic engineering is not just medicine, but it has even more to do with biology! And also human genetics IS biology!
So she probably knows a quadrillion times more about this topic than you!
Go back to school!

 

[ChrisA]

Genetic Engineering is not something you can apply to an adult. It is done before conception. So clearly this can not be don't to the first generation. Couples living on Mars would have to choose to have genetically altered children. The parents would die young of radiation and the effects of low gravity but hope their children would do better. But of course, they never know the long term side effects of this genetic engineering until the children are into old age.

SO it goes like this... We send young people to live on Mars and they die early, their children see this and don't want it for themselves but there is nothing they can do. They die in their 50s just like their parents but they attempt to save their kids by having them genetically altered. But no one knows if it will work until 50 or 80 years later. Likely some of the engineered babies die of complications in childhood but some live to 110. It will take generations to sort out what works.

In the meantime how are these colonists paying for the cost of living on Mars? Certainly, taxpayers on Earth will not pay for them. THIS problem is going to prevent the above ethical problem because there can never be more than a few professional astronauts on Mars. These astronauts will do a mission, then spend years back on earth and perhaps fly one more mission then retire, all at government expense.

Genetic engineering of humans will happen. But it will be on Earth and the first uses of it will to correct faulty genes and remove genetic defects that lead to cancer and MS and so on. No one will argue that removing defects is unethical. Then we get used to the idea and start adding slight enhancements like an improved ability in music r mathematics or just to make sure the baby grows up to be tall, thin, and attractive. What kinds of engineered changes are allowed and acceptable will grow very slowly. It will be a LONG time, centuries until we engineer babies to live in space. And then the "sky is the limit" Why does a person in space need legs? Why not four arms or at least feet with fingers and thumbs like chimpanzees. Why such heavy bones to live on Mars where gravity is only 0.38G? These people might end up looking like and being the size of a baby chimp with a human head stuck on. Why not green fur? Once it is acceptable tho engineer a person, maybe body decorations are OK? But this will all happen here on Earth.

 

[FredM]

This is not an option ... except in a Boris Karloff movie . There are consequences for playing God and manipulating the human genome for any purpose other than to cure deadly disease.

 

[kristianna276]

Now that we are able to produce GMO (genetically modified organisms) we will venture forth were no one has dared. We will, what ever mega corporation that will buy the patients for our next evolution, GMH (genetically modified humans). We don't have to relie on penal colonies to populate Mars and the other planets. In the song 2525 it predicted that children would be born in a lab, designed with industry in mind. The concept of producing workers designed with the job in mind, notably in "outer space". We have crops that are GMO's that have all the qualities you would expect for a committee of profits greedy industrialists foaming over the mega-profits that would garner from such. Like chickens that are born with not a single bone in their little bodies. No bones; no waste. No feather; no waste. Create, Kill . Serve. Would these GMH's be no more than chattel slaves to the industries on the outer worlds? Would they design they to be obedient robots? An astronaut going from Earth to Mars would receive a lot of radiation, then you have the time spent on the planet. How many will die do to radiation poisonings? Would you like to have your children Genitivally Modified? The future of humanity lies in our ability to be GMH's. Brought to you by Monsanto, the company that may help to modify you.