There’s a fascinating report over at SMH today by Steve Dow talking about Australian geneticist Richard Cotton, who wants to live in a world where each person carries around their genome sequence in their mobile phones. Then, when it comes time for users to think about getting the groove on to procreate, a simple bump of the smartphones will dictate whether or not your offspring could be negatively impacted by your combined faulty genes. Who said romance was dead?
Cotton is head of the Human Variome Project, which is trying to catalogue a list of all genes that cause diseases, in a hope of one day being able to prevent them. His vision for bumping smartphones before bumping uglies was part of a talk at TedX last week.
At the moment, genome sequencing is a very expensive and intense process, and currently out of most people’s price range.
It’s an interesting idea, but there’s a lot to be said about passion and love when it comes to having kids as well, not just a scientific approach to fertility. There’s also the inherent security questions that come with carrying around your entire genome sequence on a device you replace on a 24 month contract every couple of years.
[SMH]
Andrew
Monday, May 30, 2011 at 6:54 PMSomeone’s been taking Gattaca a little too seriously.
Scott
Monday, May 30, 2011 at 7:42 PMOK as of now even IE cant find it.
Any suggestion?
Jon
Monday, May 30, 2011 at 8:08 PMMight not be such a bad idea. In our modern world it’s no longer survival of the fittest, as such the gene pool is getting awfully murky.
Dave
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 11:38 AMThe “fittest” part of “Survival of the fittest” doesn’t refer to physical fittness, but the best fit to the environment. I feel that the modern world is still very much “Survival of the fittest”, it’s just that the attributes that used to be the best fit for the environment are very different to those that are now the best fit for the environment.
Franz
Monday, May 30, 2011 at 10:21 PMCandlelight dinner, jazz music, 8pm at night, in a cosy warm NY (expensive obv) appartment, there’s dinner, kissing, chocolates, then you bump phones… oh hell no screw you I’m outta here.