
Scientists Talk Privately About Creating a Synthetic Human Genome - arcanus
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/05/14/science/synthetic-human-genome.html
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gus_massa
Current discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11692360](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11692360)
(46 points, 18 hours ago, 43 comments)

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clishem
Related:

Scientists Talk Privately About Creating an AI (1956)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_Conferences](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_Conferences)

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nxzero
Putting aside DNA, is it even possible to emulate the whole birth process
sythenticly. For example, currently would a surrogate birth mother be required
and is this likely to change?

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coolnow
There are too many, rarely understood processes involved in fertilisation and
subsequent embryogenesis. I don't think we can fully create a human (or even
other complex life forms) fully synthetically. Rather, i think scientists
would just exploit tried and tested natural mechanisms such as embedding half
of the synthetic genome into the spermatazoon with the other half residing in
the oocyte and letting "nature" take its course.

There's just too much knowledge we're missing right now (even the calcium
signalling cascade initiated by the sperm fusing with the egg isn't fully
understood). Of course, who knows where we'd be in 10, 20, 50 or 100 years?

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astazangasta
Yeah. Also, the other day me and some scientist friends smoked a few blunts
and privately discussed creating a warp drive.

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gaius
Of all the problems facing the 8 billion people on the planet, making more of
us isn't one of them.

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Vvector
It't not about making "more", it's about making "better", not leaving
everything up to chance.

See the movie Gattaca, for an example.

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golemotron
I hope I die before we get to that phase of reality.

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andrewclunn
Reading through the comments on the article's page... Ignorance and fear run
deep with genetics.

