4.8 • 739 Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2020
⏱️ 24 minutes
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0:00.0 | Hello, SFIA audio listeners. In this month's Nebula exclusive, big alien theory, |
0:05.2 | we're asking the reason alien civilizations might be rare is because most aliens are huge. |
0:10.5 | To hear it and every episode early and ad-free, plus hours of bonus content, |
0:15.1 | check out go.nebola.tv slash Isaac Arthur and use my code, Isaac Arthur. |
0:20.0 | This episode is sponsored by Dashlane. |
0:23.9 | Genetic engineering holds the promise of one day fixing congenital health problems when |
0:28.4 | the patient is just a zygote, but if you happen to already be older than a zygote, |
0:32.8 | like I am, that doesn't necessarily mean it's too late. |
0:38.4 | Medicine has historically been something we put in our bodies, but what if we could alter |
0:42.3 | the body itself to heal or even improve ourselves? |
0:46.2 | Today we'll be talking about methods we might use to alter DNA in living organisms, and |
0:51.0 | why we might want to do it and what challenges might emerge if we can. |
0:55.8 | I suppose the best place to begin is with the notion of design our babies. |
1:00.4 | A recurring worry about the future in genetics is that folks might decide to custom-make |
1:04.7 | their children for preferred traits and also for traits that don't even exist in modern |
1:09.3 | humans, tweaking your kid to be very |
1:11.7 | good-looking, tall, smart, safe from any genetic disorders, and so on. |
1:16.6 | Scary idea in many ways, but we'll be showing today that with certain technologies, this |
1:22.0 | doesn't have to be too scary. |
1:24.1 | Unfortunately, it's also something we should expect to see, and probably in at most two |
1:28.4 | generations from now, much like artificial intelligence, it's not a problem for today, but |
1:34.4 | it is one for tomorrow, not just the pages of science fiction novels. |
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