Predicting the future is not presenting it accurately.
Predicting the future is sometimes just to change the future.
Gene customization is mentioned in A Brief History of the Future.
Before the child is born, doctors will change genes through technology, and parents hope that the genes their children have will also be changed through technology. The child will grow more beautiful, run faster, be smarter, live longer and not even get sick. With the change of time, genes will have problems, repair them again, and then continue again and again.
In fact, from a technical point of view, gene customization can now be realized. However, from the perspective of ethics, it cannot be legally applied for the time being.
That's because once the door of "human gene editing" is opened, the first influx is bound to be the dignitaries of the upper class and the rich with huge wealth.
They can use this technology to improve their family's genes and make their children have stronger physique, better appearance, better memory and intelligence, stronger disease resistance and longer life.
This is the "superhuman" mentioned in Hawking's last posthumous book A Brief Answer to Big Questions (published in 2065438+081June1June), and he even predicted that a group of superhuman will take over the earth through genetic engineering.
Although customizing children's genes through technology has not been recognized, predicting the future through genetic testing technology has begun to be sought after by people.
You can tell whether your child will be Lang Lang or Bolt with a mouthful of saliva. Combining genetic characteristics, targeted interest classes, targeted training and accurate education can help children become winners in life. It's perfect.
A mouthful of saliva can tell you what genetic diseases you have, what diseases you are prone to get in the future, and what changes your appearance will be, so as to prevent and choose coping methods in advance and make yourself healthier and more beautiful than your peers.
Such a powerful technology can be found by a casual search on the Internet. Simple and convenient, the price is only two or three hundred. The money of a meal can predict the future with technology, which is simply not as good as action.
Open the shopping APP and search for genetic testing, and you will find that the number of people paying for many projects is hundreds of thousands, and the projects inside are also varied. There are ancestral analysis, sports genes, nutritional metabolism, health risks, hereditary diseases, skin characteristics, psychological characteristics and so on.
Among them, genetic testing for children is the most popular.
Modern parents pay more and more attention to the cultivation of their children. Merchants say that through the detection of children's genes, children's IQ, EQ, personality, language, painting, music and other full sets of talents. It can be detected that the dominant genes of children provide a direction for the cultivation of future children. However, the accuracy of the results cannot be calculated, and it is necessary to "judge for yourself".
The operation method is also relatively simple. After payment, the seller will mail the collection tool to the buyer. The buyer only needs to collect saliva from the child's mouth according to the method and send it back, and then he can get the test report in a few days.
Gene detection is to detect the molecular information of DNA in the cells of the subjects by special equipment, and analyze the various genes contained in it by comparing with the gene bank, so that people can know their own genetic information, predict the risk of diseases, avoid or delay the occurrence of diseases by improving their living environment and behavior habits, or determine whether there is a specific drug target in the case of malignant diseases, thus making the choice of treatment methods more accurate.
Oral mucosal epithelial cells in saliva can be used for detection. In theory, DNA can be extracted from most cells in the body, including oral mucosal epithelial cells, which have the characteristics of vigorous metabolism, rapid renewal and easy shedding, and can naturally fall into saliva. This cell has a complete human genome DNA sequence. Compared with blood test, saliva test has the advantages of non-invasive, convenient collection, convenient transportation and avoiding legal risks (most commercial genetic testing companies do not have medical qualifications, and blood test may be suspected of breaking the law). In general, as long as saliva is collected in strict accordance with the operating instructions, genetic testing can be carried out.
But in fact, the scope of genetic testing is limited.
It is credible to predict the disease risk through genetic testing, but at present, only NIPT (non-invasive DNA prenatal screening), drug metabolism gene testing, genetic disease diagnosis, preimplantation embryo gene diagnosis and tumor diagnosis and treatment can be liberalized in China, and can only be carried out in qualified medical institutions or inspection institutions. In fact, there are many imprecise places in commercial genetic testing, and the feasibility is low.
It can be said that it is totally unreliable to know children's physical fitness, music sense, painting, IQ and EQ by detecting genes.
These contents involve quite complicated mechanisms. With the current technical conditions, human beings have not yet figured out the mechanism of their occurrence at the protein level, let alone at the genetic level.
Many people may have a divination mentality when doing genetic testing, preferring to believe whether it is credible or not, but in fact, there is still the risk of privacy leakage when doing genetic testing.
When we carry out genetic testing, we have to give our saliva to genetic testing companies so that these companies can master our genetic data, but in fact these companies have no right to obtain our genetic data.
Giving up their genetic data at will will bring great risks. We are not sure where these companies will use their genes. Once the information is leaked, it will not only be its own, but also bring trouble to future generations.
Technology brings us a better experience, but ordinary people have limited understanding of technology and are easy to be used in the application process. In the future, with the rapid development of technology, the possible harm caused by privacy leakage will become more and more serious. Therefore, for ordinary people, we must be cautious and repeated. If necessary, you should consult a regular medical institution and don't hand over your genes easily.