[influnza]

We are terrified, because we don't know, how to handle it yet. This should not stop us, the humanity. Our descendants will figure it out. There is no progress, if we are afraid of mistakes. The real problem is when we don't learn. Gattaca is a good example, what we should avoid.

[sfeng]

FYI: I don't know if English is your first language but you are using commas excessively. All the commas in the first four sentences should be removed and the final comma should be 'of'.

EDIT: Also, the second sentence should be "This should not stop us (humanity)."

[literallycancer]

He's using commas to separate individual clauses of the sentence. Slavic languages do this, and probably some others too.

>This should not stop us, the humanity.

This doesn't seem like something a modern native speaker would say, but it's basically the same thing as in sentences like this:

Montfort was a younger son of Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester, a French nobleman and crusader, and Alix de Montmorency.

, 5th Earl of Leicester, is inserted here to clarify meaning, the same way you might insert a group identifier after a we. Perhaps it might seem less out of place if he used it at the beginning of the sentence, like:

We, the humanity, shouldn't let this stop us.

[iklos55]

FYI: I don't know about your language skills in general but https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/commata#English. Point I want to make: Please stop correcting so many people in general on HN.

Edit: Yes, this was not a perfectly warranted criticism. Yes, I may come off as smug. It's my opinion that needing perfect english should not be a requirement to have a conversation about tech in general.

I often get the feeling that in an academic setting every native English speaker assumes that everyone needs to be perfectly conversational in his English but when asked which other languages they even tried to learn you often learn that the English native hasn't put considerable amount into learning something else. Again, did not want to offend anyone.

I personally do not get offended, I like to learn. Still, I often experience corrections by an English native which are simply not called for.

[tomdell]

He gave a helpful pointer on comma use, and you wrote a smug and incorrect response. Congrats.

[sfeng]

While I appreciate your linguistic relativism, comatta is just not used: http://english.stackexchange.com/a/151261

[bharath28]

Why was that offensive? As far as i can see, the feedback was devoid of any vitriol. I'd gladly take any of that kind.

[lordCarbonFiber]

Gattaca is a movie filled with terrible science (there is no evidence of a simple gene change for intellectual ability, etc) and characters that are terrible people (NASA today doesn't allow people with heart conditions to go to space, no genetic dystopia required, because having astronauts die in transit is suboptimal to the mission).

I really wish that movie didn't get brought up every time gene therapy makes another advancement.

[goatlover]

I thought in Gattaca they manipulated multiple embryos and let the couple choose the one with the most desired characteristics? I don't recall any mention of single genes doing anything, just embryonic manipulation. The main character was a natural birth, so he didn't benefit from a selection/manipulation process, and thus was born with less optimal genes.

[jszymborski]

I mean, I don't think you can call it terrible science, it's the premise. I feel it's like saying Star Wars is filled with terrible science because there is no evidence of extra-terrestrial life.