Paul Root Wolpe: It's time to question bio-engineering

94,702 views ・ 2011-03-24

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:15
Today I want to talk about design,
0
15260
2000
00:17
but not design as we usually think about it.
1
17260
3000
00:20
I want to talk about what is happening now
2
20260
2000
00:22
in our scientific, biotechnological culture,
3
22260
3000
00:25
where, for really the first time in history,
4
25260
3000
00:28
we have the power to design bodies,
5
28260
2000
00:30
to design animal bodies,
6
30260
2000
00:32
to design human bodies.
7
32260
3000
00:35
In the history of our planet,
8
35260
4000
00:39
there have been three great waves of evolution.
9
39260
3000
00:42
The first wave of evolution
10
42260
2000
00:44
is what we think of as Darwinian evolution.
11
44260
3000
00:47
So, as you all know,
12
47260
2000
00:49
species lived in particular ecological niches
13
49260
2000
00:51
and particular environments,
14
51260
2000
00:53
and the pressures of those environments
15
53260
2000
00:55
selected which changes,
16
55260
2000
00:57
through random mutation in species,
17
57260
2000
00:59
were going to be preserved.
18
59260
2000
01:01
Then human beings stepped out
19
61260
3000
01:04
of the Darwinian flow of evolutionary history
20
64260
3000
01:07
and created the second great wave of evolution,
21
67260
4000
01:11
which was we changed the environment
22
71260
3000
01:14
in which we evolved.
23
74260
2000
01:16
We altered our ecological niche
24
76260
3000
01:19
by creating civilization.
25
79260
2000
01:21
And that has been the second great --
26
81260
2000
01:23
couple 100,000 years, 150,000 years --
27
83260
3000
01:26
flow of our evolution.
28
86260
2000
01:28
By changing our environment,
29
88260
2000
01:30
we put new pressures
30
90260
2000
01:32
on our bodies to evolve.
31
92260
2000
01:34
Whether it was through settling down in agricultural communities,
32
94260
3000
01:37
all the way through modern medicine,
33
97260
3000
01:40
we have changed our own evolution.
34
100260
3000
01:43
Now we're entering a third great wave
35
103260
3000
01:46
of evolutionary history,
36
106260
2000
01:48
which has been called many things:
37
108260
2000
01:50
"intentional evolution,"
38
110260
2000
01:52
"evolution by design" --
39
112260
2000
01:54
very different than intelligent design --
40
114260
2000
01:56
whereby we are actually now
41
116260
3000
01:59
intentionally designing and altering
42
119260
4000
02:03
the physiological forms that inhabit our planet.
43
123260
3000
02:06
So I want to take you through a kind of whirlwind tour of that
44
126260
3000
02:09
and then at the end talk a little bit
45
129260
2000
02:11
about what some of the implications are for us
46
131260
3000
02:14
and for our species, as well as our cultures,
47
134260
3000
02:17
because of this change.
48
137260
2000
02:19
Now we actually have been doing it for a long time.
49
139260
3000
02:24
We started selectively breeding animals
50
144260
3000
02:27
many, many thousands of years ago.
51
147260
3000
02:30
And if you think of dogs for example,
52
150260
2000
02:32
dogs are now intentionally-designed creatures.
53
152260
4000
02:36
There isn't a dog on this earth that's a natural creature.
54
156260
3000
02:39
Dogs are the result
55
159260
2000
02:41
of selectively breeding traits that we like.
56
161260
3000
02:44
But we had to do it the hard way in the old days
57
164260
3000
02:47
by choosing offspring that looked a particular way
58
167260
2000
02:49
and then breeding them.
59
169260
2000
02:51
We don't have to do it that way anymore.
60
171260
2000
02:53
This is a beefalo.
61
173260
3000
02:56
A beefalo is a buffalo-cattle hybrid.
62
176260
4000
03:00
And they are now making them,
63
180260
2000
03:02
and someday, perhaps pretty soon,
64
182260
2000
03:04
you will have beefalo patties
65
184260
2000
03:06
in your local supermarket.
66
186260
3000
03:09
This is a geep,
67
189260
2000
03:11
a goat-sheep hybrid.
68
191260
3000
03:14
The scientists that made this cute little creature
69
194260
3000
03:17
ended up slaughtering it and eating it afterwards.
70
197260
3000
03:20
I think they said it tasted like chicken.
71
200260
3000
03:23
This is a cama.
72
203260
2000
03:25
A cama is a camel-llama hybrid,
73
205260
4000
03:29
created to try to get the hardiness of a camel
74
209260
3000
03:32
with some of the personality traits
75
212260
2000
03:34
of a llama.
76
214260
2000
03:36
And they are now using these in certain cultures.
77
216260
3000
03:40
Then there's the liger.
78
220260
2000
03:42
This is the largest cat in the world --
79
222260
3000
03:45
the lion-tiger hybrid.
80
225260
2000
03:47
It's bigger than a tiger.
81
227260
2000
03:49
And in the case of the liger,
82
229260
2000
03:51
there actually have been one or two that have been seen in the wild.
83
231260
3000
03:54
But these were created by scientists
84
234260
3000
03:57
using both selective breeding and genetic technology.
85
237260
3000
04:00
And then finally, everybody's favorite,
86
240260
3000
04:03
the zorse.
87
243260
2000
04:05
None of this is Photoshopped. These are real creatures.
88
245260
3000
04:08
And so one of the things we've been doing
89
248260
2000
04:10
is using genetic enhancement,
90
250260
3000
04:13
or genetic manipulation,
91
253260
2000
04:15
of normal selective breeding
92
255260
3000
04:18
pushed a little bit through genetics.
93
258260
2000
04:20
And if that were all this was about,
94
260260
3000
04:23
then it would be an interesting thing.
95
263260
2000
04:25
But something much, much more powerful
96
265260
3000
04:28
is happening now.
97
268260
3000
04:31
These are normal mammalian cells
98
271260
3000
04:34
genetically engineered with a bioluminescent gene
99
274260
3000
04:37
taken out of deep-sea jellyfish.
100
277260
2000
04:39
We all know that some deep-sea creatures glow.
101
279260
4000
04:43
Well, they've now taken that gene, that bioluminescent gene,
102
283260
3000
04:46
and put it into mammal cells.
103
286260
2000
04:48
These are normal cells.
104
288260
2000
04:50
And what you see here
105
290260
2000
04:52
is these cells glowing in the dark
106
292260
2000
04:54
under certain wavelengths of light.
107
294260
3000
04:57
Once they could do that with cells, they could do it with organisms.
108
297260
3000
05:00
So they did it with mouse pups,
109
300260
4000
05:04
kittens.
110
304260
2000
05:06
And by the way, the reason the kittens here are orange and these are green
111
306260
4000
05:10
is because that's a bioluminescent gene from coral,
112
310260
3000
05:13
while this is from jellyfish.
113
313260
3000
05:16
They did it with pigs.
114
316260
3000
05:19
They did it with puppies.
115
319260
2000
05:21
And, in fact,
116
321260
2000
05:23
they did it with monkeys.
117
323260
2000
05:25
And if you can do it with monkeys --
118
325260
2000
05:27
though the great leap in trying to genetically manipulate
119
327260
3000
05:30
is actually between monkeys and apes --
120
330260
2000
05:32
if they can do it in monkeys,
121
332260
2000
05:34
they can probably figure out how to do it in apes,
122
334260
2000
05:36
which means they can do it in human beings.
123
336260
4000
05:40
In other words, it is theoretically possible
124
340260
3000
05:43
that before too long we will be biotechnologically capable
125
343260
3000
05:46
of creating human beings
126
346260
3000
05:49
that glow in the dark.
127
349260
3000
05:54
Be easier to find us at night.
128
354260
2000
05:56
And in fact, right now in many states,
129
356260
3000
05:59
you can go out and you can buy bioluminescent pets.
130
359260
3000
06:02
These are zebra fish. They're normally black and silver.
131
362260
3000
06:05
These are zebra fish that have been genetically engineered
132
365260
3000
06:08
to be yellow, green, red,
133
368260
2000
06:10
and they are actually available now in certain states.
134
370260
3000
06:13
Other states have banned them.
135
373260
2000
06:15
Nobody knows what to do with these kinds of creatures.
136
375260
3000
06:18
There is no area of the government -- not the EPA or the FDA --
137
378260
3000
06:21
that controls genetically-engineered pets.
138
381260
4000
06:25
And so some states have decided to allow them,
139
385260
3000
06:28
some states have decided to ban them.
140
388260
4000
06:32
Some of you may have read
141
392260
2000
06:34
about the FDA's consideration right now
142
394260
2000
06:36
of genetically-engineered salmon.
143
396260
3000
06:39
The salmon on top
144
399260
2000
06:41
is a genetically engineered Chinook salmon,
145
401260
2000
06:43
using a gene from these salmon
146
403260
2000
06:45
and from one other fish that we eat,
147
405260
2000
06:47
to make it grow much faster
148
407260
2000
06:49
using a lot less feed.
149
409260
2000
06:51
And right now the FDA is trying to make a final decision
150
411260
3000
06:54
on whether, pretty soon, you could be eating this fish --
151
414260
3000
06:57
it'll be sold in the stores.
152
417260
2000
06:59
And before you get too worried about it,
153
419260
2000
07:01
here in the United States,
154
421260
2000
07:03
the majority of food you buy in the supermarket
155
423260
2000
07:05
already has genetically-modified components to it.
156
425260
4000
07:09
So even as we worry about it,
157
429260
2000
07:11
we have allowed it to go on in this country -- much different in Europe --
158
431260
3000
07:14
without any regulation,
159
434260
2000
07:16
and even without any identification on the package.
160
436260
3000
07:20
These are all the first cloned animals
161
440260
3000
07:23
of their type.
162
443260
2000
07:25
So in the lower right here,
163
445260
2000
07:27
you have Dolly, the first cloned sheep --
164
447260
2000
07:29
now happily stuffed in a museum in Edinburgh;
165
449260
3000
07:32
Ralph the rat, the first cloned rat;
166
452260
3000
07:35
CC the cat, for cloned cat;
167
455260
3000
07:38
Snuppy, the first cloned dog --
168
458260
2000
07:40
Snuppy for Seoul National University puppy --
169
460260
3000
07:43
created in South Korea
170
463260
2000
07:45
by the very same man that some of you may remember
171
465260
2000
07:47
had to end up resigning in disgrace
172
467260
2000
07:49
because he claimed he had cloned a human embryo, which he had not.
173
469260
4000
07:53
He actually was the first person
174
473260
2000
07:55
to clone a dog, which is a very difficult thing to do,
175
475260
3000
07:58
because dog genomes are very plastic.
176
478260
3000
08:01
This is Prometea, the first cloned horse.
177
481260
3000
08:04
It's a Haflinger horse cloned in Italy,
178
484260
2000
08:06
a real "gold ring" of cloning,
179
486260
2000
08:08
because there are many horses that win important races
180
488260
3000
08:11
who are geldings.
181
491260
2000
08:13
In other words, the equipment to put them out to stud
182
493260
3000
08:16
has been removed.
183
496260
2000
08:18
But if you can clone that horse,
184
498260
2000
08:20
you can have both the advantage of having a gelding run in the race
185
500260
3000
08:23
and his identical genetic duplicate
186
503260
3000
08:26
can then be put out to stud.
187
506260
3000
08:29
These were the first cloned calves,
188
509260
2000
08:31
the first cloned grey wolves,
189
511260
2000
08:33
and then, finally,
190
513260
2000
08:35
the first cloned piglets:
191
515260
2000
08:37
Alexis, Chista, Carrel, Janie and Dotcom.
192
517260
4000
08:41
(Laughter)
193
521260
2000
08:45
In addition, we've started to use cloning technology
194
525260
3000
08:48
to try to save endangered species.
195
528260
3000
08:51
This is the use of animals now
196
531260
2000
08:53
to create drugs and other things in their bodies
197
533260
3000
08:56
that we want to create.
198
536260
2000
08:58
So with antithrombin in that goat --
199
538260
2000
09:00
that goat has been genetically modified
200
540260
2000
09:02
so that the molecules of its milk
201
542260
3000
09:05
actually include the molecule of antithrombin
202
545260
3000
09:08
that GTC Genetics wants to create.
203
548260
3000
09:11
And then in addition, transgenic pigs, knockout pigs,
204
551260
3000
09:14
from the National Institute of Animal Science in South Korea,
205
554260
4000
09:18
are pigs that they are going to use, in fact,
206
558260
3000
09:21
to try to create all kinds of drugs
207
561260
4000
09:25
and other industrial types of chemicals
208
565260
4000
09:29
that they want the blood and the milk
209
569260
2000
09:31
of these animals
210
571260
2000
09:33
to produce for them,
211
573260
2000
09:35
instead of producing them in an industrial way.
212
575260
3000
09:39
These are two creatures
213
579260
2000
09:41
that were created
214
581260
3000
09:44
in order to save endangered species.
215
584260
2000
09:46
The guar
216
586260
2000
09:48
is an endangered Southeast Asian ungulate.
217
588260
4000
09:52
A somatic cell, a body cell,
218
592260
2000
09:54
was taken from its body,
219
594260
2000
09:56
gestated in the ovum of a cow,
220
596260
2000
09:58
and then that cow gave birth to a guar.
221
598260
4000
10:02
Same thing happened with the mouflon,
222
602260
2000
10:04
where it's an endangered species of sheep.
223
604260
3000
10:07
It was gestated in a regular sheep body,
224
607260
6000
10:13
which actually raises an interesting biological problem.
225
613260
3000
10:16
We have two kinds of DNA in our bodies.
226
616260
2000
10:18
We have our nucleic DNA
227
618260
2000
10:20
that everybody thinks of as our DNA,
228
620260
2000
10:22
but we also have DNA in our mitochondria,
229
622260
2000
10:24
which are the energy packets of the cell.
230
624260
3000
10:27
That DNA is passed down through our mothers.
231
627260
3000
10:30
So really, what you end up having here
232
630260
3000
10:33
is not a guar and not a mouflon,
233
633260
2000
10:35
but a guar
234
635260
2000
10:37
with cow mitochondria,
235
637260
2000
10:39
and therefore cow mitochondrial DNA,
236
639260
2000
10:41
and a mouflon with another species of sheep's
237
641260
3000
10:44
mitochondrial DNA.
238
644260
2000
10:46
These are really hybrids, not pure animals.
239
646260
3000
10:49
And it raises the question of how we're going to define animal species
240
649260
3000
10:52
in the age of biotechnology --
241
652260
2000
10:54
a question that we're not really sure yet
242
654260
3000
10:57
how to solve.
243
657260
2000
10:59
This lovely creature
244
659260
2000
11:01
is an Asian cockroach.
245
661260
3000
11:04
And what they've done here
246
664260
2000
11:06
is they've put electrodes in its ganglia and its brain
247
666260
4000
11:10
and then a transmitter on top,
248
670260
2000
11:12
and it's on a big computer tracking ball.
249
672260
2000
11:14
And now, using a joystick,
250
674260
2000
11:16
they can send this creature
251
676260
2000
11:18
around the lab
252
678260
2000
11:20
and control whether it goes left or right,
253
680260
2000
11:22
forwards or backwards.
254
682260
2000
11:24
They've created a kind of insect bot,
255
684260
2000
11:26
or bugbot.
256
686260
2000
11:28
It gets worse than that -- or perhaps better than that.
257
688260
3000
11:31
This actually is one of DARPA's very important --
258
691260
3000
11:34
DARPA is the Defense Research Agency --
259
694260
2000
11:36
one of their projects.
260
696260
2000
11:38
These goliath beetles
261
698260
2000
11:40
are wired in their wings.
262
700260
2000
11:42
They have a computer chip strapped to their backs,
263
702260
2000
11:44
and they can fly these creatures around the lab.
264
704260
4000
11:48
They can make them go left, right. They can make them take off.
265
708260
2000
11:50
They can't actually make them land.
266
710260
2000
11:52
They put them about one inch above the ground,
267
712260
2000
11:54
and then they shut everything off and they go pfft.
268
714260
2000
11:56
But it's the closest they can get to a landing.
269
716260
3000
12:00
And in fact, this technology has gotten so developed
270
720260
3000
12:03
that this creature --
271
723260
2000
12:05
this is a moth --
272
725260
2000
12:07
this is the moth in its pupa stage,
273
727260
2000
12:09
and that's when they put the wires in
274
729260
2000
12:11
and they put in the computer technology,
275
731260
3000
12:14
so that when the moth actually emerges as a moth,
276
734260
3000
12:17
it is already prewired.
277
737260
3000
12:20
The wires are already in its body,
278
740260
3000
12:23
and they can just hook it up to their technology,
279
743260
3000
12:26
and now they've got these bugbots
280
746260
2000
12:28
that they can send out for surveillance.
281
748260
2000
12:30
They can put little cameras on them
282
750260
2000
12:32
and perhaps someday deliver
283
752260
2000
12:34
other kinds of ordinance
284
754260
2000
12:36
to warzones.
285
756260
3000
12:39
It's not just insects.
286
759260
2000
12:41
This is the ratbot, or the robo-rat
287
761260
2000
12:43
by Sanjiv Talwar at SUNY Downstate.
288
763260
3000
12:46
Again, it's got technology --
289
766260
2000
12:48
it's got electrodes going into its left and right hemispheres;
290
768260
3000
12:51
it's got a camera on top of its head.
291
771260
3000
12:54
The scientists can make this creature
292
774260
2000
12:56
go left, right.
293
776260
2000
12:58
They have it running through mazes, controlling where it's going.
294
778260
3000
13:01
They've now created an organic robot.
295
781260
4000
13:05
The graduate students
296
785260
2000
13:07
in Sanjiv Talwar's lab
297
787260
2000
13:09
said, "Is this ethical?
298
789260
2000
13:11
We've taken away the autonomy of this animal."
299
791260
3000
13:14
I'll get back to that in a minute.
300
794260
2000
13:16
There's also been work done with monkeys.
301
796260
3000
13:19
This is Miguel Nicolelis of Duke.
302
799260
3000
13:22
He took owl monkeys,
303
802260
2000
13:24
wired them up
304
804260
2000
13:26
so that a computer watched their brains while they moved,
305
806260
2000
13:28
especially looking at the movement of their right arm.
306
808260
2000
13:30
The computer learned what the monkey brain did
307
810260
2000
13:32
to move its arm in various ways.
308
812260
2000
13:34
They then hooked it up to a prosthetic arm,
309
814260
3000
13:37
which you see here in the picture,
310
817260
2000
13:39
put the arm in another room.
311
819260
2000
13:41
Pretty soon, the computer learned, by reading the monkey's brainwaves,
312
821260
3000
13:44
to make that arm in the other room
313
824260
2000
13:46
do whatever the monkey's arm did.
314
826260
3000
13:49
Then he put a video monitor
315
829260
2000
13:51
in the monkey's cage
316
831260
2000
13:53
that showed the monkey this prosthetic arm,
317
833260
2000
13:55
and the monkey got fascinated.
318
835260
2000
13:57
The monkey recognized that whatever she did with her arm,
319
837260
2000
13:59
this prosthetic arm would do.
320
839260
2000
14:01
And eventually she was moving it and moving it,
321
841260
3000
14:04
and eventually stopped moving her right arm
322
844260
2000
14:06
and, staring at the screen,
323
846260
2000
14:08
could move the prosthetic arm in the other room
324
848260
3000
14:11
only with her brainwaves --
325
851260
2000
14:13
which means that monkey
326
853260
2000
14:15
became the first primate in the history of the world
327
855260
3000
14:18
to have three independent functional arms.
328
858260
3000
14:22
And it's not just technology
329
862260
2000
14:24
that we're putting into animals.
330
864260
2000
14:26
This is Thomas DeMarse at the University of Florida.
331
866260
3000
14:29
He took 20,000 and then 60,000
332
869260
2000
14:31
disaggregated rat neurons --
333
871260
3000
14:34
so these are just individual neurons from rats --
334
874260
3000
14:37
put them on a chip.
335
877260
2000
14:39
They self-aggregated into a network,
336
879260
3000
14:42
became an integrated chip.
337
882260
3000
14:45
And he used that
338
885260
2000
14:47
as the IT piece
339
887260
2000
14:49
of a mechanism which ran a flight simulator.
340
889260
3000
14:52
So now we have organic computer chips
341
892260
3000
14:55
made out of living, self-aggregating neurons.
342
895260
3000
15:00
Finally, Mussa-Ivaldi of Northwestern
343
900260
3000
15:03
took a completely intact,
344
903260
2000
15:05
independent lamprey eel brain.
345
905260
3000
15:08
This is a brain from a lamprey eel.
346
908260
2000
15:10
It is living --
347
910260
2000
15:12
fully-intact brain in a nutrient medium
348
912260
3000
15:15
with these electrodes going off to the sides,
349
915260
3000
15:18
attached photosensitive sensors to the brain,
350
918260
3000
15:21
put it into a cart --
351
921260
2000
15:23
here's the cart, the brain is sitting there in the middle --
352
923260
3000
15:26
and using this brain as the sole processor for this cart,
353
926260
3000
15:29
when you turn on a light and shine it at the cart,
354
929260
2000
15:31
the cart moves toward the light;
355
931260
2000
15:33
when you turn it off, it moves away.
356
933260
2000
15:35
It's photophilic.
357
935260
2000
15:37
So now we have a complete
358
937260
3000
15:40
living lamprey eel brain.
359
940260
2000
15:42
Is it thinking lamprey eel thoughts,
360
942260
2000
15:44
sitting there in its nutrient medium?
361
944260
2000
15:46
I don't know,
362
946260
2000
15:48
but in fact it is a fully living brain
363
948260
4000
15:52
that we have managed to keep alive
364
952260
3000
15:55
to do our bidding.
365
955260
3000
15:58
So, we are now at the stage
366
958260
3000
16:01
where we are creating creatures
367
961260
2000
16:03
for our own purposes.
368
963260
2000
16:05
This is a mouse created by Charles Vacanti
369
965260
3000
16:08
of the University of Massachusetts.
370
968260
3000
16:11
He altered this mouse
371
971260
3000
16:14
so that it was genetically engineered
372
974260
2000
16:16
to have skin that was less immunoreactive to human skin,
373
976260
3000
16:19
put a polymer scaffolding of an ear under it
374
979260
4000
16:23
and created an ear that could then be taken off the mouse
375
983260
3000
16:26
and transplanted onto a human being.
376
986260
2000
16:28
Genetic engineering
377
988260
2000
16:30
coupled with polymer physiotechnology
378
990260
2000
16:32
coupled with xenotransplantation.
379
992260
2000
16:34
This is where we are in this process.
380
994260
3000
16:37
Finally, not that long ago,
381
997260
3000
16:40
Craig Venter created the first artificial cell,
382
1000260
3000
16:43
where he took a cell, took a DNA synthesizer,
383
1003260
2000
16:45
which is a machine,
384
1005260
2000
16:47
created an artificial genome,
385
1007260
2000
16:49
put it in a different cell --
386
1009260
3000
16:52
the genome was not of the cell he put it in --
387
1012260
3000
16:55
and that cell then reproduced
388
1015260
2000
16:57
as the other cell.
389
1017260
2000
16:59
In other words,
390
1019260
2000
17:01
that was the first creature in the history of the world
391
1021260
2000
17:03
that had a computer as its parent --
392
1023260
2000
17:05
it did not have an organic parent.
393
1025260
3000
17:08
And so, asks The Economist:
394
1028260
3000
17:11
"The first artificial organism and its consequences."
395
1031260
3000
17:14
So you may have thought
396
1034260
2000
17:16
that the creation of life
397
1036260
2000
17:18
was going to happen in something that looked like that.
398
1038260
3000
17:21
(Laughter)
399
1041260
2000
17:23
But in fact, that's not what Frankenstein's lab looks like.
400
1043260
3000
17:26
This is what Frankenstein's lab looks like.
401
1046260
2000
17:28
This is a DNA synthesizer,
402
1048260
2000
17:30
and here at the bottom
403
1050260
2000
17:32
are just bottles of A, T, C and G --
404
1052260
2000
17:34
the four chemicals
405
1054260
2000
17:36
that make up our DNA chain.
406
1056260
2000
17:38
And so, we need to ask ourselves some questions.
407
1058260
3000
17:41
For the first time in the history of this planet,
408
1061260
3000
17:44
we are able to directly design organisms.
409
1064260
3000
17:47
We can manipulate the plasmas of life
410
1067260
2000
17:49
with unprecedented power,
411
1069260
3000
17:52
and it confers on us a responsibility.
412
1072260
2000
17:54
Is everything okay?
413
1074260
2000
17:56
Is it okay to manipulate and create
414
1076260
2000
17:58
whatever creatures we want?
415
1078260
2000
18:00
Do we have free reign
416
1080260
2000
18:02
to design animals?
417
1082260
2000
18:04
Do we get to go someday to Pets 'R' Us
418
1084260
3000
18:07
and say, "Look, I want a dog.
419
1087260
2000
18:09
I'd like it to have the head of a Dachshund,
420
1089260
3000
18:12
the body of a retriever,
421
1092260
2000
18:14
maybe some pink fur,
422
1094260
2000
18:16
and let's make it glow in the dark"?
423
1096260
2000
18:18
Does industry get to create creatures
424
1098260
2000
18:20
who, in their milk, in their blood, and in their saliva
425
1100260
3000
18:23
and other bodily fluids,
426
1103260
2000
18:25
create the drugs and industrial molecules we want
427
1105260
3000
18:28
and then warehouse them
428
1108260
2000
18:30
as organic manufacturing machines?
429
1110260
3000
18:33
Do we get to create organic robots,
430
1113260
3000
18:36
where we remove the autonomy from these animals
431
1116260
3000
18:39
and turn them just into our playthings?
432
1119260
3000
18:42
And then the final step of this,
433
1122260
3000
18:45
once we perfect these technologies in animals
434
1125260
2000
18:47
and we start using them in human beings,
435
1127260
2000
18:49
what are the ethical guidelines
436
1129260
2000
18:51
that we will use then?
437
1131260
3000
18:54
It's already happening. It's not science fiction.
438
1134260
3000
18:57
We are not only already using these things in animals,
439
1137260
3000
19:00
some of them we're already beginning to use
440
1140260
3000
19:03
on our own bodies.
441
1143260
2000
19:05
We are now taking control of our own evolution.
442
1145260
3000
19:08
We are directly designing
443
1148260
2000
19:10
the future of the species of this planet.
444
1150260
3000
19:13
It confers upon us an enormous responsibility
445
1153260
3000
19:16
that is not just the responsibility
446
1156260
2000
19:18
of the scientists and the ethicists
447
1158260
2000
19:20
who are thinking about it and writing about it now.
448
1160260
2000
19:22
It is the responsibility of everybody
449
1162260
3000
19:25
because it will determine what kind of planet and what kind of bodies
450
1165260
3000
19:28
we will have in the future.
451
1168260
2000
19:30
Thanks.
452
1170260
2000
19:32
(Applause)
453
1172260
4000
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7