Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 33 - Designer Babies: The Scary Pandora's Box of Genetic Modification

Episode Date: May 1, 2017

What exactly are designer babies? What plants and animals have scientists already genetically modified? Have any humans been genetically modified? How will genetic modification affect the future of the human race?  Find out and get 20% off any purchase at Mackweldon.com by using the promo code TIMESUCK

As a parent, I can tell you that worrying about the health of your unborn baby can be one of the most stressful experiences of your entire life. You instinctively want so badly for them just to be healthy. Life is going to be hard enough no matter what, and you pray or hope or whatever it is you do when you're worried over something you have no control of, that they're not going to start their life with some physical or mental disadvantage. The moment my son Kyla was born, I instinctively counted his fingers and toes. Ten. Thank you. Do the same for my daughter and

row. 10 again. All right. It's terrifying. Did the ultrasound miss something? Are they gonna have a hole in their heart? Are they gonna have all their organs, both their eyes, all their chromosomes? Well, what if these worries were a thing of the past? What if you knew what kind of kid you were gonna have at conception? New they'd be tall, healthy, intelligent, athletic, free from any and all disease? Would you give them that gift of certainty if you could? I bet you wouldn't. I mean, who wouldn't? What could be wrong with that scenario?

It sounds great at the selfish, individual level, but what if suddenly you find yourself living in a reality where you can't afford genetic engineering and others can. You think your kids have in a hard time making the varsity basketball team now? What if the competition is genetically enhanced to be more athletic than a normal human being? Having a hard time getting into an Ivy League school already? What if the competition has genetically modified brains? The gap between the halves and the have not could grow impossibly wide to breach in this brave new reality. Can we stop it? Should we stop it if we can? So many questions. Working wait. It's time to take it all in and come to your

own conclusions on this genetically enhanced futuristic post-human edition of TimeSuck. You're listening to TimeSuck. Welcome to the show, everybody. I'm Dan Cummins, and today's TimeSuck is brought to you by Mac Weldon with smart designs, premium fabrics, and a simple online shopping experience. Mac Weldon underwear are definitely better than whatever you're currently wearing. And I can personally vouch for that because I wear them myself.

I bought a pair of their 18 hour boxer briefs and ended up wearing them for about 36 hours. Even though I did about four hours of yard work on the first day, it's true story. Welcome to next day, got caught up in some errands, decided to take a shower that night and totally forgot I was wearing dirty underwear. That's how good they are. Mac Weldon's mesh zone design pushed my ball sweat out of way for me and into mother nature where it belongs. Instead of letting it turn into some vinegar based general stew because no one wants that ever. Max Weldon boxer briefs are so comfortable. Once you wear a pair,

other underwear will feel like barely pliable sandpaper rubber banded here not sack. So ask yourself, do I like having sandpaper rubber banded to my raw, slightly swollen sack? Or do I want to have my balls held by the hands of a firm but soothing Mac Weldon boxer brief weaving penis angel? And they have a lot more than boxers luxurious socks, a grown-up hoodie you can wear everywhere. I have one of those and I do awesome t-shirts and so much more. In addition to looking and feeling great, all Mac Weldon products are crafted with natural fibers that have built in performance capabilities, so they work hard too. It's like they're hitting the bench press while

you're doing squats or maybe it's nothing like that. Maybe they're just awesome even when you're lazy and terrible. They even have a line of silver underwear and shirts that are naturally odor eliminating antimicrobial. And they're shipped right to your door so you don't have to go shopping and lose focus because you want to punch some other customers in the face at an actual store. And if you don't like your first pair, you can keep it and they will still refund your money.

No questions asked. So go to Macwellden.com, that's m-a-c-k-w-e-l-d-o-n.com and get 20% off your purchase when you punch in the promo code, time suck at checkout. That's right, go to Macwellden.com and get 20% off your purchase when you punch in the promo code time suck at checkout. That's right. Go to Mac Weldon dot com, get 20% off. That's a lot off using our very own discount promo time suck.

One word no spaces time suck at Mac Weldon dot com. Thanks again for all you time suckers who have bookmarked time suck podcast dot com and use that Amazon button to show the show some support while you shop. And those of you purchased that first generation timesook t-shirt made out of 99% hamster eyelids and 1% hamster tears. Hopefully next week I'll be telling you the second generation shirt is in production designed as supposed to be done today, later today. So I appreciate the emails and itunes reviews, the 600 reviewed JFK conspiracy episode

is going to be here fast if the current pace continues. Adding all your episodes suggestions to the list and sorry I haven't got back to messages past few weeks these these past few times so I really did suck up all my free time. So I think this next week I'll be a little caught up and start getting back. Thanks to Alex Robbins, Henry Waters will use at MinTron 1210 on Instagram and anyone else I may have missed for asking for this particular time suck I learned a lot and I hope you do too and now let's find out where and how I inevitably fucked up in the continually self-shaming segment I probably never should have started but I can't bring myself to stop Get into some time sucker updates

to some time sucker updates. Kai Carlson wrote in with the subject line of two are Lord and Master of Suck. That definitely brought a big smile to my face. Saying I was listening to your episode on Pobble, The Dirtbag, Escobar, and noticed you have a bit of a problem with Spanish names and mangled Che Guevara. Che Guevara doesn't she showed me the pronunciation. Otherwise it was a real insightful episode. Keep up the suck. I'm sorry, maybe he. I've known I actually know a he-kai and she-kai in real life. So Che Guevara. Che Guevara. Damn it. Thank you, Kai. Damn it. That was one of those names I should have looked up on YouTube

for sure. I thought I had it and I was wrong. I balanced it from one region to the world to another week to week. I'm trying to pronounce Roman names one week and like Spanish to next. Not easy for a dude who apparently has trouble pronounced even English words, but I'm learning. I'm learning. I also learned that Norman's K is actually Norman's Key.

It's Norman's Key. When referring to a small island of the Bahamas that Pablo used as a refueling spot for his drug smuggling planes from Joey, who has a last name I also don't know how to pronounce for sure because last names don't come with attached a phonetic audio files teach you exactly how to say them when you're only reading them kind of like how I'm only reading the thousands of goddamn names I listen to all these fucking episodes

any who Joey's subject line is maybe Bojangles should do your research and Joey says just finish your Pablo mother fucking ask aar podcast and cringe whatever you pronounced key. It's pronounced key even though it looks like K. A K pronounced key is a small low island consisting of mostly sand or coral and situated on top of a coral reef. Bahamas is full of keys. In fact, Disney had their own private island just north of the Bahamas called Castaway Key. I would love to wear a Bojangles T-shirt, keep on sucking you master's sucker. Well, for the record, for those you don't know, this key is spelled C-A-Y.

Fucking English, C-A-Y is pronounced K. God damn fucking K-keys. And I think Bojangles shirt does have to happen. I think it needs to be a third generation shirt. I already got the second one getting ready. And I've already actually reached out to another artist to get that shit locked and loaded. All right, found out I use another word I just made up last week. Turns out irreparably,

is not a word at all. I use a lot of those made upwards. Goddamn it. Time sucker Will Bernson and a few others called me out. Will wrote them with a subject lined up. Goddamn it, Danny Locket down. Saying, Dan, I'm not going to be around the bush here, man. In the Maryland Monroe episode, which was fucking phenomenal. Thank you all for that. You kept using the word irreparably, which does not exist. The word is irreparably. And then he said a whole one to another nice thing because he's a gentleman and as a time sucker, he's clearly a top tier member of the human race as you all are. Man, the past few months of corrections, I have a newfound respect for anyone from a foreign country who's learned to speak English

fluently, this language is a motherfucker. Aggressive call out from Josh to cruise on the subject line of a you absolute shit stick. Josh says, vice Roy. It's in the name, dude. Like the magazine you literally referenced not so long ago. Vice like Miami vice and Roy, like boy, but with an R. Vice Roy. Christ of the corn ship. Have you ever watched Phantom Menace? They say vice Roy about 27,000 times. Give me that good suck. High from Atlanta. Best wishes Joss. Well, the end's on a sweet note, doesn't he? So that's positive. Joss is referring to me mentioning the Vice Roy of Bernata being founded in 1711 when speaking about Columbia's history. Fucking New-I should check that word too. I

call it Viseroy. God damn it. I think I may have some kind of brain disorder when it comes to properly pronouncing words. You may have heard of it. It's called being kind of dumb. And it affects nearly all of us from time to time. Quick Instagram update, check out some amazing bow jangles artwork created by some time suckers, Thomas Royal, and Reese Bank on my Instagram page at Dan Cummins Comedy, so cool.

I've always envy people who are talented when it comes to drawing, man, painting, et cetera. Highly suggest you check out their work again in my Instagram at Dancombscombodies where those pictures are posted And finally this is from Zachary Summers after a subject line of here's the deal Dan He says sackadogshit.com is an actual place in the former shitstenders.com a website that will anonymously send Elephant gorilla or cow shit to a hated individual life. You're welcome everybody. I repeat shitcenders.com. Well, I looked it up and while I count vouch for it, I haven't tried using it yet. Shitcenders.com does appear to be a real business, a gag business of some sort.

There's a fucking website for everything. Well, thanks for the extra knowledge, time-sockers. Love the reciprocal suck. I suck you, you suck me. Just a big circle of suck. Now, let the reciprocal suck. I suck you, you suck me, just a big circle of suck. Now let's get curious. Let's all get sucked into the exciting

and terrifying world of genetic modification. ... Next time suckers, I need a net. We all did. Okay, with a complex subject like this, I do find sometimes that Wikipedia is a good place to start off. Get the basis from there.

And then move on. So Wikipedia defines designer babies as quote, designer babies are human infants artificially produced by the world's top designers, such as Ralph Lauren, Mark Jacobs, and Tom Ford. Designer babies have high cheekbones, a disdain for anything reasonably priced, and an irrational fear of food

that is an organic and doesn't involve either kale or osi berries. Desider babies are aesthetically pleasing to the eye but tend to be uptight, anxious, emotionally fragile, and prone to eating disorders. No, no Wikipedia doesn't say anything that. Wikipedia says a designer baby is a human embryo that has been genetically modified, usually falling guidelines set by the parent or scientist to produce desirable traits. All right, so which traits exactly are we talking about here? After hitting up a lot of articles, apparently just about anything.

Intelligence looks, muscle mass, eye color, hair color, sight hearing, even personality and disposition, and so much more could be eventually genetically engineered. But before we get into the how and the should we, I was curious as to what we've already done. Well, on August 29, 2000, Adam Nash, the world's first designer baby, was born. His parents decided it was critically important for their son to have a penis somewhere between eight and ten inches long after Adam's father spent a lifetime being ridiculed for his one and a half inch micro-painess. While the procedure worked, young Adam ended up being ridiculed anyway,

due to his penis being a full 10 inches long at birth. Initially, the doctor and nurses honestly thought he had a third leg with some kind of tiny, wonky foot at the end. And of course, Adam now goes by the nickname of KicksTand. And of course, that's not true. But he was born on August 29th, 2000, and Adam Nash is the world's first designer, baby.

He was conceived through in vitro fertilization and pre-implementation genetic diagnosis, PGD. So he could donate his cord blood to his sister, his imbiblicle cord blood, Molly who was born with Fancone Anemia. Fancone Anemia is a disease passed down to families. It's an inherited disease that mainly affects the bone marrow. It results in decreased production of all types of blood cells and hurts one's ability to fight off infection, amongst many other terrible symptoms. So it's obviously

very problematic and can be fatal. In addition to being the world's first designer baby, Adams has also been referred to as a Savior sibling for saving his sister's life. Adam inspires a 2004 Jodi Pico novel, My sister's keeper, which led to the 2009 camera's Diaz film, my sister's keeper, which led to me never watching the fucking movie or reading the book, because it came out a few weeks after the hangover and it seemed like it was gonna be a bummer, seemed super sad and downer. Well, I read a little bit about it now and it looks like maybe it's okay. Spoiler alert, hit the mute button for about 30 seconds if you haven't seen this movie in the last fucking 13 years.

And it's, oh wait, that was the book. Sorry if you haven't seen this movie in the last eight years and you still want it, you're still getting around to watching it. Just hold on for like 30 seconds, hit the mute button for 30 seconds. Here's the spoiler alert. Sixth of your dies. The Sixth sister dies, all right? She fucking dies. The Sixth sister of the next kid all right? She's fucking dies. The Sixth Sitcher, the next kid was given birth to in order to donate a kid need to keep her sister alive, dies. She was tired of fighting cancer, didn't want to be kept alive with her sister's organs, it might not keep her alive much longer anyway.

So yeah, fun movie. Well in real life, the Sitcher doesn't die. Yeah, like I said, the plan worked. Adam Nash's unbiblical court of blood saved his big sister Molly's life. So this is an example of an unequivocal win for genetic engineering, I think. But even though in this isolated example, the results to me are obviously positive, not everyone thinks this should have been done.

There are large number of people who believe life starts with a fertilized egg. And many of these people saw the Nash's as murderers. Why? Because the Nash's created 30 embryos and went through four rounds of in vitro fertilization to finally produce Adam who was the match Molly needed. Now, the problem here for some is that these other 29 embryos were tossed out. They were tossed out. They were thrown in the trash. They were taken out back and thrown in a bigger pile of trash.

And then they were shit on. And then finally they were set on fire. Okay, they were not shit on a set on fire, but they were tossing the trash. Adam was chosen 29 other human lives, were not, something because their DNA was not able to rescue Molly from the deadly diagnosis. Again, I personally don't believe that a small cluster of cells is anything other than that.

A small cluster of cells. I wouldn't feel any more guilt about throwing that out. Then I do about cleaning a little alone time off myself at a hotel bed when I'm out on the road. To me, cluster that hasn't developed yet into a bean capable of any thought whatsoever, let alone self-reflection or consciousness or awareness of its own life has no value. But not everyone believes that. Some people believe that life and soul begin with conception, and that makes Adam's case

problematic. So as you can see, genetic engineering is very controversial. Culturally, just kind of a, just, just the foundation of it, just the very concept of it is controversial. But this little genetic screening we're talking about is just the tip of the genetic engineering iceberg. Before we explain the rest, so I do want to kind of explain what the scientists did in Adams case. Like I want to know what is PGD or pre-implementation genetic diagnosis.

Well, PGD is the genetic profile of embryos prior to implementation. And if I understand it correctly, it's basically an advanced form of genetics screening as opposed to what we'll be talking about soon, which means much more exciting, which is active genetic manipulation. With PGD, multiple test tube embryos are created using donor eggs and sperm, test tube babies to be artificially inseminated with in vitro fertilization, and then before being implanted in the womb, specialists screen them for the desired traits, pick the one with the correct blood type or the one with the correct gender,

whatever, toss the rest out. And then shit on them and set them in fire. But with PGD, there are a lot of limits to what can be accomplished, right? Like if everyone in your family has brown eyes, black hair and is under five foot three, it's not like you're going to use PGD to have a boy who has red hair, green eyes, and his seven foot five. Not that anyone would pick a human of that size and look under any circumstances. Nothing gets redheads. There's a lot of good looking redheads out there, but no one wants a seven foot five inch tall redhead. You have to know that. No one would pick that.

Even if both parents were seven foot five inch redheads, they would still pass on a kid who's gonna look like them. They know better than anybody. How hard it was to grow up is an unfuckable ginger giant. Basically, with PGD, if you have, for example, a two and three chance of passing on a genetic disorder to your offspring, you can have three embryos created and pick the one embryo that definitely doesn't have the disorder. All right.

So other than, you know, picking Adam to cure his sister, what else have scientists already done with genetic engineering? For that info, let's go into the world of plants and animals where life hasn't just been screened, but actually modified, altered, engineered, yeah buddy. Sci-fi here we come. Modification is a big next step, and crack it open that Pandora's box, could eventually have insane and extreme consequences,

I believe, for humanity. Okay, well, back in 1983, genetic scientists were able to bring bow jangles back to life. One eye, three legs, all-ass kicking pit bull. Kept, cryogenically frozen in underground laboratories since 1968. Bow jangles was genetically modified so that his single front leg will be ten times as strong as either one of Steven Segal's legs and twenty times as deadly. His good eye was given X-ray and laser capabilities. He was tripled in size. His teeth were sharpened, made stronger than titanium.

And he was sent on a mission to defend South Korea from North Korean Communist Korean People's Army government, destabilization and political assassination attempts. He was partnered with CIA, Secret Operative, and five time granny winning keyboard and vocalist, Michael Motherfucking McDonald, triple M at the height of his powers. And he was also partnered with FBI informant and 14 time Grammy nominee James Ingram, using

their Yamalbee there, Grammy winner, are in mother sucking beat collaboration as a clever ruse to cover up their true commitment, defending freedom domestically, and abroad. I can picture it now, McDonald, and as soon as breath takingly wide as his hair, riding the top of genetically modified bow jangles through the South Korean countryside, ice pealed for communist machinegun in hand. James Ingram also in a white suit so they match like the fucking yacht rock champions they are, rides behind them because no one, I mean fucking no one rides in front of triple M.

James holds a smaller machine gun in his hands so everyone knows who the real lead singer in head of the mission is. Both men are prepared to do whatever it takes to thwart the foreign forces of Mayhem, possibly even practicing their award-winning soul-corressing harmonies as they defend democracy. Yamotam Suk! Mmm, yumm, oh time, suck. Oh, yumm, oh time, suck. Okay. Oh, I'm back, I'm back. You're probably not, you're probably not.

You are probably recovering from a vicious McDonald's. That one was fucking rough, but I need you to refocus. I need you to stop thinking about me, poorly singing, yumm, oh time, suck. Stop thinking about me poorly singing YUM-O-TAM-S-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C- of Dollar's sheep, 1996 British scientists created the first clone sheep named Dolly by transferring the nucleus from an adult cell into an unfertilized premature egg whose nucleus had been removed. Sounds crazy. A process called nuclear transfer. Very similar to the process used to raise bow jangles back from the dead. I hope I've seen a nuclear. Correct. I know I was correct on that before and now it's fucking in my head because of all these goddamn updates and I don't remember if I was saying it the right way the first time

uh or the other wrong way. But I'm gonna yeah I don't have to go with uh nuclear. That's how I is how I want to say it. Well, Dolly was as lucky as Bojangles. Sadly Dolly died of a lung disease at the age of six. No word on if the sheep that she was cloned from died of this same disease. I remember when I first heard about Dolly it blew blew my fucking mind, man, cloning. Whether you agree with it being ethical or not, you can't deny that it's an incredible scientific accomplishment to clone something. 2007 South Korean scientists altered a cat's DNA

to make it glow in the dark because South Koreans are super fucking weird. This is the country that brought us gangnam style back in 2012. This is a country where numerous bakeries make poop-shaped cookies, true story, and where cleavage is frowned upon. What the fuck? Anyway, scientists took the altered DNA and cloned other cats from it, creating a set of fluffy fluorescent felines.

The researchers took skin cells from Turkish, Turkish, Angora female cats, and used a virus to insert genetic instructions for making red fluorescent protein. They are pretty cute actually. And they put these gene-altered nuclei into the eggs for cloning and the cloned embryos were implanted back into the donor cats, making the cats the surrogate mothers for their own clones. So weird. They did this so weird, they're giving birth to their clones. They did this so later they can introduce human diseases and the cats to study and work on treatments

for the diseases, but not have to follow the ethical guidelines. You'd have to follow for human experimentation. So, the prepping them to die of horrible diseases, not as cute, smart though. You know, you have two truly identical cats or multiple identical cats. You can set up the perfect scientific experiments because you have the perfect control group

and can absolutely control all the variables. But man, talk about another ethical dilemma. Like is it okay to torture and kill hundreds or thousands of animals and potentially give them horrible diseases and painful treatments if the end result is the eradication of some human disease? Some say definitely others say no way. As someone who loves my kids but also loves my puppy Penny, a little Penny who's recovering from getting spayed a few days ago right now. She's around here somewhere,

a little penny who gets so many snuggles every day from daddy, because I am disgusting when it comes to the affection I show my dog. I'm not sure where I stand on this. On the one hand, I don't want to stand in the way of some illness that afflicts children being cured, but on the other hand, I don't want various lab animals being harmed in a non-natural way. And then on my third hand, topping off my genetically modified third fucking power arm, I treat myself to some froyo and don't worry about the argument anymore. Seriously though, it's tough, you know. It's not that these animals would be injected with human diseases out in the wild.

I don't know. I feel like the rational cold logical part of me says, go ahead and experiment animals. You know, but then the emotional part of me says, don't you dare fucking touch them. You try and get pennies some disease and I'll bat you fucking scullin'. All right, one 2012 scientists at the University of Wyoming engineered goats to produce a protein found in spider silk in the goat's milk.

Silk is useful for a variety of applications and material science and medicine and it's hard to get spiders to make enough of it. I bet, I bet. I would think it would also be hard to milk goats to get enough silk. But what do I know? And this made me think like, our spiders really being farmed for silk. That is so creepy. Actually, I found out most silk comes from silkworms. Wait, let's creep in the spiders. But I did also find out that people have actually made fabric out of silk taken from actual spiders in places like Madagascar. People have

harvested silk from the giant golden orb spider in Madagascar. That has to be one of the worst jobs ever even thought up. I'm sorry. What did you say that you do? I harvest silk from giant African spiders. How do you do that? Well, first I parked my car in the spider farm parking lot. And then for about 20 minutes, I just kind of sit there and quietly cry.

They'd have to decide and not to kill myself that day. I spend eight hours, about eight hours covered in spiders that look like they just crawled out of one of the devil's own nightmares and then I go back to my car, I cry again for a while, and I go home, I take a two to three-hour shower, cry a little bit more, and then I take enough coating to either dream, not dream, or never wake up again. Okay, also in 2012, Ag Research, a company owned by the New Zealand government, engineered a cow to produce milk with one of the proteins that many people are allergic to, known as

lactoblobulin, with a funny shape B in front of it. The milk also contained more caston, a nutritious protein found in milk. As someone who's lactose intolerant, but loves cheese, got to say, big fan of this one. Thank you scientists. I have no ethical problems whatsoever when it comes to removing lactose intolerant, but loves cheese, gotta say, a big fan of this one. Thank you, scientists. I have no ethical problems whatsoever when it comes to removing lactose from cows. I wanna say that right now. I like to remove it from goats as well,

if you don't mind, maybe those spider fucking goats. All right, I'd love to enjoy a block of gudah that doesn't turn my bowels into a weapon of mass destruction. All right, well, here's another animal that's not cool. In my opinion, scientists in Israel have created a prototype of a breed of featherless chickens that can save chicken farmers time on plucking, a chicken that is more environmentally friendly

and also significantly cheaper to raise. They are also the saddest looking animal I've ever seen in my fucking life. There's, it isn't just so preposterously sad looking. They look like a cooked chicken breast with legs in a head. They look like a walking meal. Like you might as well have like the to-go box around its torso. It just doesn't know it's dead yet.

It's so horrific, it's so sad. Like what next? Chickens that just shit, honey mustard sauce, that you can use to dip their carcasses in? Maybe chickens that instead of clucking just start yapping, you know? Just, Tom to bore me, Tom to bore me. Ready for the deep frow, ready for the deep frow.

You know when they're at their taste, yes. Despite the numerous benefits of feathers, chickens will provide there are some serious drawbacks to consider. Mother nature wouldn't give chickens feathers if you thought they were useless. The feathers on the chicken are there to protect chickens from parasites, harsh weather conditions, and overzealous cocks that can hurt the hands' skin when mating.

But hey, you know, fuck chickens, right? Who's with me? Only a couple of people? Okay. All right, now let's talk about CRISPR. Let's talk about some CRISPR pigs. We even might start to have genetically modified pets soon. Scientists in China use the new genome editing technique.

I'm gonna talk about a lot later called CRISPR-Cas9 to modify the genes of BAMMA pigs in order to create tiny micro pigs, which they plan to sell commercially. And I got to say tiny pigs way cuter than featherless chickens. Not sure why shrinking in animals seems more benevolent. Benevolent? Excuse me?

Benevolent? I said that fucking correctly than taking feathers, but it does. Bald chicken sad, tiny pig adorable. More on the crisper method of genetic modification just a bit by the way. A lot of our food has also been modified. In fact, most of us, if not almost all of us, probably eat some type of genetically altered food every single day. Vegetables have been genetically modified for years now, almost 85% of America's corn

has been genetically modified to become more resistant to herbicides used to kill weeds. Almost all US soy has been genetically modified. The largest US producer of hybrid seeds for agriculture, pioneer hybrid international, created a genetically engineered soybean, which was approved in 2010. It is modified to have a high level of oleic acid, which is naturally found in olive oil. Oleic acid is a monosaturated omega-9 fatty acid that may lower LDL cholesterol, the bad stuff supposedly, when used to replace other fats.

By the way, whoever's taking the time to make all these how to pronounce videos on YouTube for all these science words, thank you so much. You are saving me so much ridicule and critical emails right now. Sugarbeats about half of all sugar in the US now comes from sugarbeats because since 2008 nearly all the farmers who grow sugarbeats in the US decided to start growing genetically modified versions of their crops. The GMO Beats, GMO that common term term I mean genetically modified organism which can tolerate the weed killer glyphosate, otherwise known as roundup, made it easier for them to get rid of weeds. Hopefully, scientists will figure out how to make sugarbeats.

They don't smell like rancid skunk when they go through a processing plant sometimes. Have you ever driven by one of those fucking beet plants? I have. There's some in southern Idaho. I don't know if it's like the chemicals they use during processing, but the stink is almost unimaginable. It makes you think they have some kind of death plant there, it's like instead of a sugar beet plant.

It always reminds me of that old soil and green quote, it's people, soil and green is made out of people. Papias or even GMOs now in 1990s, Hawaiian papaya trees were plagued by the ring spot virus, which decimated nearly half the crop in the state. And then in 1998, scientists developed a transgenic fruit called rainbow papaya, which is resistant to the virus, and creates a small protective rainbow around the person who eats the papaya that blocks harmful sun rays, and nurtures you emotionally.

Okay, it's actually just resistant to the Ringspot virus. But now, 77% of the crop grown in Hawaii is genetically engineered. Milk, RGBH, or recombinant, bovine growth hormone is genetically engineered variation on a naturally occurring hormone injected into dairy cows to increase milk production. This is probably what I feel like this is the one that most people have heard of and are scared of. You know, the hormone fucking laid milk. It's banned.

It's a milk band in Europe Canada New Zealand Australia not in the US though. So I guess we're the Guinea pigs many milk brands that are our GBH free Labular milk is such but about 40% of our dairy products including ice cream and cheese do contain this hormone And again, it's this particular GMO or genetically modified organism the scares a shit out a lot of people right now You know that all that all that look I big that 12 year old is it's all those hormones are put in the milk my 10 year old is hit puberty It's all the hormones they're put in the milk My grandma just fucking Darryl Dawkins slammed dunked a fucking basketball on the 12 foot rim It's all those hormones put in the milk Seriously a lot of concerns out there these foods are bad for us that altered food is altering us

Why looked into it is it really? A lot of concerns out there, these foods are bad for us. The altered food is altering us. Why, looked into it. Is it really? Right? Because this is a big issue with a lot of people. My wife, Lindsay, words about GMOs and our food and tries to avoid buying them. But are they really dangerous?

According to a 2015 survey by the Pew Research Center, why not? Nearly nine out of 10 scientists from the American Association for the Advancement of Science say GMOs are, quote, generally safe to eat, though if you're more, like also it said that more than half of US adults in the general public in the same survey think that you probably should need them. And if you're critically thinking adult, you have the right to be a little worried when

the scientist's placement of the word generally with that placement. Why couldn't 9 out of 10 scientists fucking say that GMOs are definitely safe or super safe or safe as fuck? No, they go with generally. I can't ask these scientists why they came to that generally conclusion, but after a lot of research, I think it's just because GMOs haven't been known

to definitely contribute to any problems yet, but they also haven't been around long enough for a longitudinal study to be conducted in properly ascertain the true long term effects. But again, should we be worried? I mean, it's not like GMOs, I, you know, the true long-term effects. But again, should we be worried? I mean, you know, it's not like GMOs. I don't know, it's not GMOs are the first organisms to have their genes altered if you look at evolution, so maybe we shouldn't. You know, changes to genes were already happened in nature, naturally. In fact, no matter what's on your menu, it isn't exactly the same,

it's what grew hundreds or thousands of years ago at the genetic level. You know, bits of DNA called genes are responsible for all sorts of characteristics and traits in every living thing. From height to how certain cells work, useful traits help the plants, animals with them survive or thrive better than the ones without them. So they get passed along and eventually become common. This is good old evolution, just doing this thing naturally, organic GMO, if you will, like a little bit of natural selection, you know, slowly modified over time.

Our ancestors split up the process when they saved seeds of cream of the crop plants to grow the next time, you know, and the next and the next, and the next, that's what turned out, those small bunches of, you know, like, tiny kennels on fucking tall grass, 10,000 years ago, into the big ears,

a juicy corn on the cob that we have today, human assisted evolution. Well with animals, picks the litter, we're paired to breed new and improved babies. My dog Penny's example, this my Australian labored it will selectively bred to be so goddamn cute, you can't train it properly

because it breaks your heart to even yell at it. Right, you don't want to upset it. Penny wasn't genetically modified in the lab, but she was artificially created in some sense. It's not like there used to be little pennies out there in nature, out there in the wild. Thank God. And everyone fucking made it. I'm pretty sure even a small muskrat could take her soft candy ass down if she ever ran out into nature. Here's another argument in favor of GMOs I'd never thought of before researching this topic. As the population grows, it's going to be harder to feed everybody. The food

and agricultural organization of the United Nations estimates food production will need to thought of before researching this topic as a population grows, it's going to be harder to feed everybody. Right? The food and agricultural organization of the United Nations estimates food production will need to double in some parts of the world by 2050 to make sure everyone has enough to eat. GMOs are one way to make enough nutritious food available with limited land, water, and other resources. Another way to fix this problem is to put both jangles in charge of a one-world government. He makes the calls, who lives, who dies, who scratches his soft tender belly

and gets his leg kicking uncontrollably as his tongue flops out of the cider's mouth. And he knows he looks silly, but he just can't stop because it feels so good. It feels so good, sweet mama. But seriously, feeding the ever growing population of the planet creates a strong pro argument for GMOs, right? You fucking hippies and your organic farmers market, fruit, bullshit stands, aren't going to cut it, even though I love those places and find it quite delicious. And again, scientists are monitoring how these new crops affect us. Now, the group of scientists, an extensive review of research on the safety of crops from GMOs, or the past 10 years, and found no significant harm directly tied to genetic engineering.

Yet, despite no evidence, some people do fear that you could become genetically modified yourself from eating GMO food. You drink too much hormone milk, and you're going to sprout a second head or something. This thought is what a lot of prominent scientists are calling, quote, a bunch of silly horse shit, and they've asked the general population to quote stop being alarmist silly dickweets. All right, but that didn't happen. Excuse me. But seriously, genetic material doesn't get tacked on like pin the tail and donkey.

All right, and added gene isn't going to fall off some hormone-laden milk of just drink and get stuck to your genes. Bacteria fighting enzymes and processes in your body are designed to prevent a genetic invasion. As a report from the American Medical Association's Council on Science and Public Health explains, if an outside germ somehow survived digestion and gotten to your gut bacteria, it would have to be enough like your own DNA and just the right place, adjust the right time to glom on to one of your genes and change it. Which kind of like, you know, the generally modifier above kind of terrifies me, in addition to assuring me. So right now,

apparently the GMOs are fine, but if some bio-terrorist were to add the right kind of human-like DNA alteration to the code, it sounds like maybe something good changes. And that's what I take from that. But, you know, full disclosure, I couldn't find any scientific documentation that says that's something to be worried about. My imaginary research assistant, Bojangles, however, says he found a shitload of documentation that says I'm right to be nervous. Here's another thought on GMO food,

but things in perspective, just as possible or impossible, to know how you look at it, for non-GMO foods to also change your genes. Anything you eat has DNA that's foreign to you. GMO or not. Again, kind of reassuring, kind of scary, but mostly reassuring, I think. You know, just like some GMO could theoretically,

you know, possibly altruist in some way, so could some good old farmers market Huckleberry Jam,uring, I think. Just like some GMO, theoretically, possibly altruists in some way, so could some good old farmers market, Huckleberry Jam, organic, delicious nonsense. But what about the whole early puberty fear around GMO hormones? The big concern I've always heard revolves around these like making kids grow up too fast. Well, this phenomenon is called precocious puberty. Some doctors do think it's happening with greater frequency since 1990s, especially among

girls, but they're not certain it has anything to do with GMOs, right? Because there's a lot of other factors. Other factors that have been implicated, you know, besides hormones in food, hormone mimicking pollutants in the waterways, and even non-hormonal changes like increased exposure to sex in the mass media. Also, not all scientists are convinced that even an actual rise in percosis puberty exists. Reports have been anecdotal, and studies have been smaller and conclusive. Percosis puberty, by the way, is defined as the onset of puberty before age seven or eight in girls or age nine in boys. This is a range, and this has been part of the problem of establishing the

normal age of puberty. Girls might enter full blown puberty anytime between ages 9 and 15, boys between 11 and 17. But then there's like Clint Eastwood, you know, for example, who hit puberty in the second trimester and his mom's fucking tummy and had a receding hairline by a third trimester. You know, he was born a fully formed world-were man with crow's feet around his eyes. He was never a boy. You show me one photo of a baby faced Clint Eastwood. From everything I've read, it's probably not milk doing it, even if there is a rise in

early puberty, the science doesn't work out. When percocious puberty entered the radar screen in the early 1990s, the first suspects were hormones. Milk and meats, particularly the artificial bovine growth hormone we've talked about, RBGH. But this is a protein hormone that gets completely destroyed in human digestion. Not a steroid hormone like estrogen. In the words of Dr. Terry Etherton, an animal nutrition professor from Pennsylvania State University, there are zillions of protein hormones in both plant and animal foods.

Zillions. They are digested in the stomach, which kills their ability to have any biological activity. There is just no way to come to a science-based conclusion that hormones in food or dairy products cause early puberty. Thanks, Terry. Thanks for the feeling better about my milk. So where if you want to about GMOs in our food, but your fears are probably unfounded. The fear is probably just based in the fear of something new in the fear of the unknown. Aren't we always afraid to change?

Or maybe you should be scared, because maybe everyone in power is lying to us, and the earth is flat, and the space lizards control our every thought and move. That's also an option if you don't care about science or logic. Okay, now let's talk about CRISPR. I first heard of CRISPR from some of you time suckers

as you wrote in with some show suggestions. I'll be honest, I just added it to the list. I didn't look it up with the acronym, even meant. I assumed it was an acronym for some conspiracy theory or something to do with genetic modification. Well, now I know that CRISPR, C-R-I-S-P-R, stands for chronically recurring itchy, syphilis penis rash.

And I can tell you, from personal experience, you don't want to catch it. All right, sweet Christ, you do not want to catch it. It is crazy. You play one game of, does anyone know where I just stuck my weiner for a few hours You don't want to catch it. Alright, sweet Christ, you do not want to catch it. It is crazy. You play one game of, does anyone know where I just stuck my weiner for a few hours with some strangers at a campground in 1997? And the next thing you know, you get yourself a case of the crisper.

No. crisper stands for clustered, regularly interspaced, short, palindromic, repeats, whatever the fuck that means. Well, for all those words mean, it's currently the simplest, most versatile and precise method of genetic manipulation, known as CRISPR-CAS9. This system consists of two key molecules

to introduce a change, a mutation, into the DNA. There's an enzyme called Cas9 that acts as a pair of molecular scissors that can cut the two strands of DNA at a specific location in the genome so that bits of DNA can then be added or removed. And there's a piece of RNA called guide RNA that consists of a small piece of pre-designed RNA sequence about 20 bases long, located with a longer RNA scaffold, a scaffold part binds to DNA, and the pre-designed sequence guides cast-9 to the right part of the genome. This makes sure that the cast- Cas9 to the right part of the genome. This makes sure that the Cas9 enzyme cuts the right point in the genome.

At this stage, the cell recognizes that the DNA is damaged and tries to repair it. Scientists can then use the DNA repair machinery to introduce changes to one or more genes in the genome of a cell they're working on. And theory, this could lead to almost unlimited genetic manipulation. Now, if you're confused as to what all those terms meant, and you want a deeper explanation, I want you to go fuck yourself. Alright, who do you think you're listening to? Alright, there's a reason human ecology was the only science class I took in college. All I had to learn was that polluting the environment was bad, and I had to go on one field

trip to a landfill. It was the only science class off of a Gonzaga that you could pass without learning a single equation. Now, if you need more in-depth masters level scientific explanation, you go listen to Bill May or Neil DeGrasse Tyson or some other scientific intellectual and then please, please report back to us. What it sounds like to me that they're saying is like genetic editing is with the process like CRISPR is kind of like I'm computer programming, you know, like you want your website. Now I'm liking programming. You want your website. Now I'm liking the language I use for a little bit of website updates, but it's a matter. That's a matter.

The process is what's important here. You want your website to have a different font. You go in and change the code a little bit. You replace one section of letters, spaces, symbols, numbers with other letters, spaces, symbols, and numbers, and then presto-changeo. Now you're seeing courier instead of times new Roman on the website. I think it's similar to that.

You want brown eyes instead of blue. You go into place that little section of brown eye code. It was some blue eye code, and then presto-changio. You have fucking new color eyes. So what did Genesis think that CRISPR is gonna be able to do? Well, it's already doing some things in the animal world. This is blows

my mind. It's cured muscular dystrophy in mice. Check that shit out. Doshane muscular dystrophy is caused by a mutation that prevents the body from producing the distrofen protein, a critical protein in the development of muscle tissue. People who have this genetic mutation suffer from muscle degeneration that is ultimately fatal. Because the mutation that causes muscular dystrophy affects one specific gene, the disease is the prime target for using CRISPR. Researchers successfully treated muscular dystrophy in lab mice in January of 2016 using CRISPR to cut and repair the dystrophin gene, as I talked about earlier. That sounds really nice, you know, about helping those mice until you realize that the same

science has probably gave those mice MS in the first place. Still, for MS sufferers, amazing. And going back to our earlier debate about experimentation on animals to benefit humans, are you cool with this example? Really think about that. Do you mind the fact that probably thousands of mice, thousands of living creatures were given MS, and then died of MS in order to finally achieve this result?

Are you cool with that? Well now let's change it a little bit. Let's replace mice with hamsters. Maybe you had one as a pet as a kid. Maybe you have one now. Now how do you feel? Now replace hamsters with cats, same experiment. Now replace cats with dogs.

Now replace them being serious, replace dogs with puppies. All right, now let's say, you know know it is puppies. Let's say it is puppies That's what the people have to they have to experiment on puppies But now think about you have MS or maybe your mom does or maybe your kid Would you let puppies be experimented on and die over and over and over again and Some sterile laboratory. They never get to be pets, if they could save your mom's life. Not such an easy fucking choice, is it?

All right, this is again, so many dilemmas, so many ethical dilemmas around this genetic modification and engineering experimentation. All right, well, I learned also something else that CRISPR has eliminated cancer, or I'm sorry, actually not CRISPR, a CRISPR similar gene editing tool called talent. It works in a similar fashion.

And an infant girl had lymphoblastic leukemia, a serious form of blood cancer. After trying traditional cancer treating methods, such as chemotherapy and bone marrow transplant, the doctors decided to use gene editing technologies in a last-ditch effort to save the girl's life. By altering the immune system T-cells of a donor to more effectively locate and kill leukemia cells without attacking the girl's body, Dr. successfully eliminated her cancer.

That's fucking incredible to me. They created a new kind of little cell basically to go fucking fight the cancer. Oh, so curing cancer, and basically it sounds to me like potentially curing almost all diseases, that's fucking huge. What an impact that could have on so many ways in the planet, right? So many ways.

It makes me wonder though, like could we be there now? Like, you know, in a much wider scale, somebody wrote in to me about this, actually kind of poses problem. What's like, I wonder if this kind of technology could exist right now? What if we could get your hands right now?

Here's the conspiracy theory me, theorist in me. But think about all the pressure against curing disease. Think about the pharmaceutical industry, how powerful and large it is. The, just the medical industry in general, like one of the biggest, if not the biggest sectors for job growth. What if all of a sudden most of their customers

didn't fucking need them anymore, right? Because geneticists figured out how to cure these diseases. You don't think on some level behind the scenes, there's gonna be some serious political pressure to fucking slow that down because of the impact you could have on the economy. I don't know, that's a whole other side, fucking conspiracy issue.

But anyway, what else could CRISPR lead to? Besides the curing diseases. Well, scientists say that one day they could edit viable embryos to eliminate disease before they ever become adults or even regular people. And also, it kind of what I talked about earlier, just various attributes, like stronger babies, smarter babies, babies with only blue eyes,

gaticate territory, basically. And a lot of scientists believe that this is gonna happen and they're just gonna lead to a new era of humanity, the transhuman era, I hadn't heard of that before. Transhumanism being defined according to Transhumanism.org as a way of thinking about the future that is based on the premise that the human species in its current form does not represent the end of our development, but rather a comparatively early phase. And Transhumanists believe that the Transhuman's phase is just an intermediary phase on a way to

becoming post-humans, defined as future beings whose basic capacities have so radically exceeded those of present humans as that they are no longer unambiguously human by our current standards. Post-humans, as I referenced in the Mandela Effect episode, could be human-designed artificial intelligence programs that have continued to evolve after organic human extinction, some kind of terminator sky-nets, or post post-human could be humans whose genetic code has been modified and engineered so much that they're essentially a different species than today's humans. How fucking crazy is that? Modify ourselves into essentially a new race of beings. I think you go far enough into the future, there's almost no limit to what we're capable of, you know, with achieving with technology and

biotechnology. And all this reminds me of a book I read, a year ago called Ilium, written by the incredibly talented Peoria Illinois author Dan Simmons, a true genius in my opinion, and Ilium's a heavy read, but it's a good read. It's set far, far in the future in some post-human era. Future where a few post-humans have evolved themselves into real replication of the gods of Greek mythology from the Ilium, and they rule from Mars over a brand of un-evolved humans on Earth as actual, all-powerful gods. They're immortal, they're superhuman, how? Will they modify themselves to become that way? Through extreme genetic modification,

combined with the development of artificial intelligence and nanotechnology. You know, what if we combine nanotechnology with genetic engineering? What if tiny little robots, and I'm talking tiny little robots injected into our bloodstream, could continually repair our DNAs? It breaks down. Continually renew us. What if tech transfusions could eternally replace an Autobots as those things break down?

We could be immortal. The aging process could theoretically be stopped. At least some of us could. We could possess superhuman strength, superhuman reflexes, cognitive abilities. We literally can't even comprehend now. How cool is that? Well, in the book, it is really cool for the very, very, very few people who possess it. The upper 1% of the upper 1% of the upper 1% of the world's wealthy elite.

So basically, if your last name isn't like Rothschild or Rockefeller, you're fucked. And that's a big ethical argument with genetic engineering. Will the benefits be passed on to everyone? There's no way. There's no way they will be. Just like not everybody gets to go to an Ivy League school or be a CEO, not everybody's going to benefit from the new technology. So what if only the wealthy do? You know, will genetic engineering turn the wealthy into some kind of new race of superhuman overlords who rule over the genetically inferior poor? that sounds fucking terrible. Well, I just wonder, then are any Ilium-like genetic modifications available to adults now?

Ah, bummer, no, not yet. Nope, we can't modify ourselves anyway. They would give us any superhuman capabilities just yet. It's kinda bummed when I found that out. Part of me was hoping against all reason and sanity to come across some kind of article where tests were being done to get people superhuman strength or some kind of ex-managed

shit, you know, some kind of Wolverine stuff. Stuff of comic book legend. I was hoping it was maybe becoming reality, some part of me. And maybe it will in 500 or 150 years, you know, could we eventually reinforce someone's skeleton, some virtually indestructible material, re-engineer the biology to allow them to heal themselves almost instantaneously? Yeah, why not? I think so.

I think so. I think we probably will be able to do that stuff if we don't go extinct first. I don't think we're gonna be able to fly a little like Superman or shoot webs out of a wrist like dumbass Spider-Man, but some version of Wolverine, I think that's gonna happen.

And with the evolution of military tech, I think a Batman or Iron Man can be right around the corner. I really do. Strange times we're living in, man. I think they're gonna get a hell of a lot stranger. Okay, okay, so we're talking a lot of weird shit here. We're talking a lot of weird stuff. But really, here's the big million dollar question in this episode.

Just because we can do all of this and it looks like it's only a matter of time before we can. Should we do it? What are the true ethical considerations involving the future of genetic modification, transhumanism and and post-humanism. Well, to look at the future of that, I actually looked at the past. I started before I reached this episode by reading a book that was written in 1931 and published in 1932. It's a book called Brave New World, written by British fiction author, Aldous Huxley.

I highly recommend it. 1999, the Modern Library, an American publishing house ranked Brave New World 5th on this list of the 100 best English language novels of the 20th century, and they did it for a reason. Brave New World set in London in the year AD 2540, 2540. 632 AF after Ford in the book. Yes, they used Ford, like Henry Ford to mark time. And basically, Alice creates a world where humanity itself has been modeled after a Ford automobile assembly plant,

which is going to be in people's minds, you know, back in his day as the age of manufacturing plants and mass production was really just kind of getting moving. In Alice's futuristic world, all human beings are created factory style in batches. All of them are altered, except for a handful of humans who live on futuristic Native American reservations where they live walled in, unassisted, undisturbed, and they're

just kind of, it's like a human zoo. They're viewed by, you know, civilized society as a curiosity, some kind of living artifact from a simpler time. Still the examples of an outdated primitive era. Well, in the new human creating centers, which have replaced natural conception entirely, humans are genetically modified beginning artificial conception to be members of various classes. The alpha class, beta, gammas, and epsilons, and delta's, excuse me. And each of these classes were identical uniforms. And each class or cast shares genetic traits, like alphas are smarter, taller, and better

looking than betas, and so on down the line. And within each cast or class, there's a little variation. You can be an alpha plus, so you can be an alpha minus, or just a basic alpha. And it's printed on a uniform, and everyone from a class has the same color of uniform, so you can see them coming. So everybody knows exactly where you stand within your class. The alphas are society's intellectuals, college professors, leaders, scientists, etc. The betas are skilled workers, you know, mid-level managers, technicians, etc. The gammas are semi-skilled workers, the deltas are low skilled workers, and then the lowly epsilons essentially can be toilet and dig the ditches.

And each of these classes are created in child centers. Each of their destiny is predetermined. Alphas are modified to be handsome, are beautiful, strong leadership skills, muscular physique, extreme intelligence. Epsilon's by contrast have oxygen limited to their fetuses at critical points during brain development, and are given other setbacks. They're created to be below average in every single way. These kids are raised in batches, dozens big, where each kid in the batch is identical

in every way to the others in that batch. All created from a single egg that's been modified to replicate many times over their clones of each other, and their brainwashed from birth to accept their role. Epsilon's, for example, are given books as toddlers, but when they touch the book, they're shocked. They are actually shocked, and this is repeated over and over.

It's classical behavior as conditioning, gives them a strong negative association with books, and this is nurtured into a negative association with knowledge in general as they grow older. Well, all disease for all the classes is a genetically altered out of existence. Jeans have been altered so that no one ages in the normal way. You enjoy youthful existence right up until you turn 60 when you're snuffed out and cremated to prevent overpopulation. And you don't even care if you're going to be put down because you were brainwashed early on to accept death is no big deal. And everyone in every class is brainwashed to accept their role wholeheartedly.

They literally don't want to be a member of any other class. They feel like if you're an epsilon, your brainwashed to think that the alphas have it hard. They have way harder than you. They've got to make all these decisions. That sounds terrible. If you're an alpha, your brainwashed, the epsilons are just fucking dirty shitheads and what a horrible existence they have and you're so lucky to be an alpha. So everybody's happy and everybody's able to look down on the other classes in their own kind of way. The family unit is abolished,

in Brave New World, everyone belongs to everyone else, everyone is programmed to have sex with anyone, they wish, you're not allowed to turn someone down, you're not allowed to be in a monogamous relationship, close emotional relationships of any kind of forbidden because a motion of this kind can lead to pain. And this is a world free of emotional pain. Everyone takes a special drug called Soma

that is more powerful and pleasant than any drug we have now. It's your fork. Everyone's happy, there's no competition. Everyone plays the same two games. Everyone shares the same political and religious ideology. Everyone listens to the same music. Everyone eagerly accepts their role in society and each other.

There's no more pain, there's no more suffering. And while no one has anything to complain about in this brave new world, as you read it, you start to wonder, do they also have anything to fucking live for? You start to wonder, is struggle part of the human condition, an essential part? Do we need struggle to feel fulfilled? You know, this novel makes you think like, what a world like that be better than our own? A world where everything has been modified to perfection and no one ever suffers, no one stars. You know, no one dies of disease. Isn't their value in that? No more misery. But would you also lose real joy? Do you need the yin and the yang? You know, would you want to live in a world where art that comes from

suffering no longer exists? No more songs by tortured rock stars because no one feels tortured. No more van goes, no more dollies, no more individualists and no more philosophers, no more fiction authors, just mindless games, mindless drugs, casual sex and dedication forever to keeping things the way they are right now, endless preservation of the new status quo. Would that comfort be worth sacrificing passion?

Would you give up romantic love with all the pain that inevitably comes with it for limitless sexual encounters, sexual encounters that could never develop in anything more than that? Would you want to trade grief and mourning the loss of loved ones for no loved ones at all? Would you end world hunger for life led exactly the same way as everyone else's life? Character or at least everyone in your class, you know, a character in the book makes the interesting point about religion too, stayed in the religion comes from suffering. the belief in a higher power is usually associated with the need for some

supernatural being to write the wrongs you endure in this world when do people pray the hardest when life's at its worst What if you literally had no problems? What if everything was taken care of? What if you were brainwashing no longer fear death? Will there still be a need for God? Would you be willing to give up your spirituality if it meant no longer having to fear death? It's fucking heavy stuff. And even if you believe that we shouldn't taint-caron with Mother Nature, that we should hold on to our struggle and torment that having work or having to work for something makes it achieving it feel so much sweeter than what it's just handed to you, can we stop the genetic modification trajectory we're already on? Is there a brave new world kind of inevitable?

Why don't we stop it? Just like people, countries themselves are competitive and want to become bigger, stronger, continually marching forward, continually progressing. I feel like the need to do that to perpetually push forward is hardwired into our DNA. We're evolved to want, to continue to evolve. That's what humans do best. March forward into the unknown. Take the next step in medicine, tech, etc, etc without worrying about the long-term consequences of our current actions. And if we cared enough about our long-term health, nuclear weapons would have

never been invented. So what I take away from this episode is that, ready or not, here we come designer babies, here we come genetic modification. If we don't do it, someone else will maybe China Maybe South Korea Singapore, Japan, maybe Germany or Russia or South Africa Someone's gonna take the next leap and then that and then the one after that and so on and so on and so on And I got to say I'm nervous, but I'm fucking excited too I'm not sure it's the best thing for our planet or humanity, but all this progress with genetic modification AI nanotechnology All this talk of transhumanism and post-humanism It's exciting. It's held to me and maybe if we do it right

Maybe we can find some nice balance between our present, you know reality of struggle of You know of torment and joy Failure and triumph and find some balance between that and then the reality that laid out that was laid out in Huxley's brave new world I don't know a little happy medium, I don't know. I think that's the best case we can hope for. And now, let's take one last look at all this madness. I know this was a fucking brainy one with some top five takeaways.

Time, suck, top five takeaway. Number one, CRISPR is not in fact a painful, venereal disease you can pick up on a camping trip. It's a more powerful, new method of genetic code manipulation is gonna end up giving us much more than just tiny pigs. It may even wipe out disease as we know it, but not anytime soon, because the conspiracy theorist that lives inside of me thinks about how a disease

gets wiped out, the entire medical and insurance industry is going to be in a lot of fucking trouble, which makes me think pharmaceutical companies are going to slow down this research as much as humanly possible through lobbying for more and more research-killing government regulation. Number two, hormones in milk are probably not according to scientists, quote,

putting pubes on your son's balsac or hairs on your daughter's pus before they should be there." And yes, bow jangles assures me that is in fact a direct scientific quote from the head of all science. Number three, Michael McDonald may have been a CIA operative working to prevent communism from spreading to South Korea in the early 80s. Can I prove that?

Of course I cannot. But can you disprove it for sure? Exactly. Number four, genetic modification is going to inevitably lead to incredible advancements in humanity, which is terribly exciting if you're rich and actually get to enjoy them. The rest of us are probably doomed to be merely lowly epsilons, but you know, hey, it's not like being poor in the future is going to be anywhere so being poor now. So don't get too bummed out about future you, at least you'll be healthier.

Number five, scientists tell us that GMO foods are generally safe which makes me feel generally nervous about eating them Except lactose-free milk. I don't care if that shit ends up give me a second head that does nothing with slobber and smack its lips I want my gas-free cheese goddamn it I want my gas free cheese, goddamn it. Time suck, top five takeaway. All right, thanks to everybody for listening to this first sponsored edition of Time suck. I'm so excited. Hope I can pass on more and more deals to you

going forward from companies that I fucking like. And you, how cool is that? Listen to the show you already like, free, and get some shopping discounts. When, when, all right, a couple of tour dates coming up. Gonna be at the university in in Moscow, Idaho, this Saturday, May 6th, two shows, one at 6 p.m., one at 9 p.m.

I believe they're both almost sold out. One may even already be sold out. So if you wanna try and get a ticket, you gotta call 208-882-050 very soon. I'll be at the historic Punchline Comedy Club in San Francisco, May 10th through the 13th. I'll be at the historic Punchline comedy club in San Francisco may 10th through the 13th. I'll also be just north of Los Angeles at Levitie Live in Oxnard, California may 26, 27, 28th, sorry the dates of my website have not been updated that date moved a long time ago and I gotta update

my website, but the dates on on Levitie Live's website are correct. I'll be there may 26, 27, 28. And I'm already excited for next week's episode, man. Next week, we're gonna suck on the fucking cult of Jim Jones, right? Lot of requests for that one. It's one of the first episodes I thought about doing, when I first started doing Time Suck. Glad we are finally getting to it.

Jim Jones was a pastor, communist ideologist. I didn't know that. Social activist for racial equality didn't know that uh... who won the martin luke king junior humanitarian award from pastor cisa williams in nineteen seventy seven and the very next year he went back shit fucking crazy so how did it charismatic champion for civil rights aside on november eighteen nineteen seventy eight to kill over nine hundred americans who chosen to live in his Jonestown compound in Guyana

and also kill himself and what would be the greatest single loss of American civilian life taken in a deliberate non-military action. And the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 find out who this man was, why he did what he did. And so much more as we go full crazy, full crazy, full death cult and drink the Kool-Aid next Monday at noon, Pacific Daylight time. So have a great week everybody. Keep TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO