Playing God

I woke up this morning thinking "What on earth am I gonna blog about?"

Of course, as soon as I went online I was bombarded with the news about artificial life actually being realized.

Huh.

Well, I will say that I'm not the least bit surprised at all the hullabaloo. I am a bit surprised at the Catholic Church's reaction, with a cautious approval given the appropriate constraints. That is far more progressive and forward-looking than I've ever come to expect from the Vatican.

On the other hand, all the uproar from various groups claiming that this is Pandora's Box... well, I will grant that it very well could be. There's always that possibility. But I'm just not as worried as they think I should be. Call me a Modernist, but I put more faith in humanity's capacity than most groups would like to believe. Especially the religious types, who believe God, in his/her/its divine wisdom, created human beings to suck. Awesome.

I don't think progress happens without taking steps towards the future. This seems like an appropriate baby-step into the world of genetic engineering. And given the political fallout, I feel like it had to come from a relatively independent scientist. Hopefully from now on, it can be regulated and become mainstream, with the end result being a capacity to cure genetic diseases.

Or maybe it'll be with a small terrorist group able to wipe out the human race.

Either way, I feel like Earth will be better off for it. :)