[unsupp0rted]

This is probably the only way "humans" are going to colonize any planets other than Earth. And probably lots of new places on Earth too.

Just include the genes for extreme-cold or extreme-arid climates. Or the genes for low oxygen environments, or even for metabolizing useful things from eating rocks. Or from spending 24 hours a day in salt water.

[wartywhoa23]

The ease of this "just" is the most concerning thing in the context of humankind's survival.

[Windchaser]

>The ease of this "just" is the most concerning thing in the context of humankind's survival.

Right? I wouldn't expect genes for heat/cold tolerance in other organisms to necessarily be useful in humans. They work by mechanisms that are useful for that organism, but humans have our own set of problems.

It's like saying you can strap a jet engine on to a tractor and expect farm work to massively speed up. No: the machinery doesn't translate for a clean swap like that.

[vee-kay]

Then I recommend you don't find out what "Project Molecule" intends to do.

[imzadi]

Care to enlighten? Google has nothing meaningful.

[wartywhoa23]

Thanks for the heads-up!

[throwaway198846]

There is no way it is just "just". And we should start from simpler stuff like vitamin B12, C and D.

[unsupp0rted]

Everything is “just” eventually.

Just tell your car to drive you to the airport. On the way just tell it to play that song you like.

[wartywhoa23]

Alas, one's happiness (as in genuine inner wellbeing, as opposed to the consumption-based external one) is no "just" matter, and never will be.

[Traubenfuchs]

Oh if only science was not constrained by ethics.

I can already see the people protesting against the creation of space marines.

[whycome]

No laws on mars

[vee-kay]

Science has never been constrained by ethics.

The same scientists who cry about ethics, have happily experimented on mice and guinea pigs in their labs, even if it causes the deaths or distress of those little sentient beings.

Mutations/mutatives like Halo's Master Chief and Marvel's Super Soldier serum won't remain sci-fi for much longer, methinks.

[a_better_world]

former practicing scientist at an institute whose name you would recognize.

The field may not be fully constrained by ethics, which is just a way of saying that the work is done by people and people have varying ethical bounds, but from what I saw many of my colleagues were highly ethics driven.

I remember one Russian colleague who smuggled blood products out of Russia so they could be tested for HIV. Because the Russian government refused to help these patients. The man risked his life to help HIV sufferers.

Ethics is best when matched with courage, if a person is willing to put their life on the line for their beliefs.

Also noting that in the western world, experiments generally need approval of an ethics board before proceeding. That board's sense of ethics might make different judgments than you on, for example, mice experiments, but there is a big difference between "not constrained" and "some of the constraints are different than what I would choose".

where in this case, the ethics boards decided that provided a certain risk/reward barrier is crossed, and that the animals are otherwise treated well, sacrificing mice to improve human health is just fine.

That is an ethics based decision that was debated for a long time. And maybe should continue to be debated, there is real value in your stance that all beings are sentient and this demands a level of care.

[vee-kay]

@a_better_world: (apt username for this conversation!)

I do understand what you mean, and I do comprehend that animal testing cannot be avoided for scientific advancements to help and progress humanity.

But I have a simple motto I want to adhere to (it is very hard though, to practice it in principle and action daily): Ethics is best when it is for the good of humanity, without being bad for Earth.

In recent years, I am starting to feel humanity is sharply veering away from its basic ethics (and the first ethic must be to not shit where one eats - but hey, we are actively aggressively destroying the only beautiful bountiful planet we know of, that can support humanity), and doing whatever the top richest most-powerful elites want.

And this unbridled greed and apathy is going to sow the seeds for the downfall of humanity, I'm afraid. At the cost of our precious Earth and its other denizens who share this planet with us humans.

There has been a catastrophic 73% decline in the average size of monitored wildlife populations* in just 50 years (1970-2020), according to World Wildlife Fund‘s (WWF) Living Planet Report 2024.

https://www.worldwildlife.org/news/press-releases/catastroph...

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y3j0vzpl3o

Forests around the world disappeared at a rate of 18 soccer fields every minute, a global survey found.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/climate/deforestation-wri...

Our generation is the last one that can still save the wild forests of the Earth, which help us cope with the climate crisis and preserve the biodiversity of the planet. A new study by Greenpeace Russia and the University of Maryland has shown that if urgent and effective measures are not taken to preserve wild forests, most of them will disappear in the next 20 years.

https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/51810/wild-fo...

[melagonster]

And save human life at the same time? Experiments are not just about torturing animals; people spend a lot of time optimizing for experiment design.

[vee-kay]

Hey, did you hear about the Volkswagen Monkeys?

Volkswagen (the same megacorp that did the infamous Dieselgate/Emissionsgate scams) forced monkeys to inhale exhaust from its automobiles, to try to show that fumes from current models (the cars, not the monkeys) were less noxious than previous models.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/science/sociology/20-of-the-most-u...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal

I guess this cannot be termed as "torturing animals" in the "name of science".

We humans also inhale vehicular exhaust fumes, don't we?

Oh wait, I forgot. Monkeys don't drive cars.

Or do they? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XW5NLeGEo94

[melagonster]

If you do not know, the current effort is focused on reducing the budget of NIH. These experiments are performed for cancer or other disease research.

[krzat]

Imagine if we could turn our bodies into perfect spheres, and then adjust genetic beauty preferences to match it.

[Windchaser]

Seems like a heat dissipation problem

[vee-kay]

Is there a gene to avoid getting addicted to doomscrolling? ;-)

[vee-kay]

Relevant and topical..

TikTok's 'Addictive Design' Found to Be Illegal in Europe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46911869

Gen Z less intelligent than millennials: How skipping books and doomscrolling are taking a toll on cognitive abilities: says Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath: https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/India/gen-z-less-intelligent-...