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Ian Explains: Will biotech breakthroughs lead to super humans?
Medical technology could lead to a new breed of super humans.
On Ian Explains, Ian Bremmer looks at the evolution of human enhancement, tracing its roots from ancient history to recent ground-breaking tools like CRISPR gene editing, AI-powered prosthetics, and brain implants. These advances hint at a future of disease eradication, independence from physical disability, and recovery from traumatic brain injury. In a few short years, they’ve radically expanded the possibilities of how technology can improve the human experience and extend our lives.
But while biotechnology has incredible, transformative potential, it also brings lots of risks. Gene editing raises the specter of designer babies, eugenics, and even the potential for militaries to create superhuman soldiers. There’s also the question of privacy and data collection, as private companies like Elon Musk’s Neuralink gain further access to our medical histories. Ultimately, we need to strike a balance between embracing biotechnology’s life-changing potential while safeguarding our values, ethics and the very idea of what it means to be human.
Watch the upcoming episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer on US public television this weekend (check local listings) and at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld.
- Steven Pinker shares his "relentless optimism" about human progress ›
- CRISPR and the gene-editing revolution ›
- What is CRISPR? Gene editing pioneer Jennifer Doudna explains ›
- Scientist Jennifer Doudna on making CRISPR technology viable — and affordable — for everyone ›
- CRISPR gene editing and the human race ›
- CRISPR gene-editing tech should have limits, says Nobel laureate ... ›
- Podcast: Tracking the rapid rise of human-enhancing biotech with Siddhartha Mukherjee - GZERO Media ›
Scientist Jennifer Doudna on making CRISPR technology viable — and affordable — for everyone
While global cooperation on public health issues like access to COVID vaccines continues to sputter, a group of scientists from around the world are quietly working on making CRISPR gene-editing technology within reach for rich and poor nations alike. "We're going to want to work as quickly as possible to scale it to a point where that also helps bring down the cost," says Jennifer Doudna, who won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on CRISPR. Watch her interview with Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.
Watch the episode: CRISPR gene editing and the human race
CRISPR and the gene-editing revolution
CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. You don't have to remember that, but you should know that this new gene editing technique can literally change life as we know it. Through CRISPR, scientists are now able to precisely edit DNA sequences in living things. They hope to be able to cure genetic diseases like sickle cell anemia and hereditary blindness. CRISPR may even be used to treat cancer and HIV. There's a darker side to CRISPR. What about engineering soldiers who can fight without fear or pain? Many argue that using CRISPR technology—for good or bad—amounts to playing God and that its use should be halted altogether. Others, like the World Health Organization, see enormous potential for the science but want to put limits on its application to prevent humanity from bringing out our own worst traits. Ian Bremmer explains what we know and don't know about the brave new world of gene editing.
Watch the episode: CRISPR gene editing and the human race