
Genetically Engineering Yourself Sounds Horrible – This Guy Is Doing It Anyway - Jun8
https://gizmodo.com/genetically-engineering-yourself-sounds-like-a-horrible-1820189351
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Jun8
The DIY CRISPR kit was crowdfunded 333% two years ago, here's an article
discussing it ([https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mail-order-
crispr...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mail-order-crispr-kits-
allow-absolutely-anyone-to-hack-dna/)). You can still buy these $159 at
Zayner's company, Odin ([http://www.the-odin.com/diy-crispr-
kit/](http://www.the-odin.com/diy-crispr-kit/)). It comes with detailed
instructions to do a project: modify E. coli so that it can grow on
streptomycin, which normally kills bacteria!

This story is the textbook definition of "scientific innovation story that's
creating mixed feelings": On the one hand, the whole thing sounds like a
Hollywood adaptation of Bioshock, the heavily tattooed unconventional PhD
experimenting on himself, biohacker stickers that say "Create Something
Beautiful", etc. You know _exactly_ where this will end from the first 10
minutes.

OTOH, part of me _loves_ this! If you think about it, basic humanity has
changed little over the past couple of thousand years, you can probably
timejump the Egyptian pharaoh Narmer (c 3100 BC) to today and he will get most
of our daily lives: we still sleep, eat meals, fall in love, have sex, get
angry over petty stuffy, etc. We have covered tremendous ground with our
_tools_ , e.g. behold the iPhone X, but for all practical purposes our basic
drives and bodies are the same. I think human society will attain the next
level of sophistication only with biohacking.

