I don't agree with much of his talk, but it was worth listening to, and definitely got me thinking about the topics.
I don't know that any of his examples are anti-science as much as they are scared-and-untrusting-that-faceless-bureaucrats-have-our-interests-at-heart. I think the thought, though, has merit. I saw a definite lean away from science during the last decade. On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 2:34 PM, Judah McAuley <ju...@wiredotter.com> wrote: > > I'll have to give this a listen later but I have a quibble with > dismissing fears of "frankenfood" out of hand. I'm not inherently > against genetically modified foods. In some cases I think we'll see a > wonderful set of opportunities. However, it is an area in which a > little knowledge can be a dangerous thing indeed and at this point > that's all we have...a little knowledge. There needs to be years and > years more research done before we can really declare some of these > experiments as safe. There is a big difference between aggressive > interbreeding to produce desireable characteristics and wholesale > replacement of a section from one species genome into another. The > later, we think, is something that doesn't normally happen in nature, > though there are suspicions that viruses may be responsible for some > relatively large genetic changes. > > Right now we don't have a massive food crisis on our planet. We do > have a distribution problem, but these genetically modified plants > won't address that. And since we don't have a production crisis at > this point I think it behooves us to take a very cautious approach and > learn a lot more about a brand new area of research before we go into > production. A number of the companies behind this push, I'm looking at > you Monsanto, are not good stewards of the earth and have a history of > bogus science and criminal recklessness. > > There are some great possibilities out there. But if we rush forward > too quickly we run a major risk of having things go horribly wrong due > to unforeseen consequences and that will both hurt us in the short > term and in the long term as the real possibilities will ignored due > to fear. Don't fuck this up like with did with nuclear power. > > Cheers, > Judah > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:315634 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
