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[Scoops Novel]

Unrealistic to think it would be. We have a class system in the first place because people like having systemic advantages, and genes are that.

[Criptfeind]

I think there's a couple of issues with the keep it secret, keep it safe line of thought to gene editing. If this stuff is possible, it seems inevitable, and not just because some rich fucks want to enshrine a permanent caste system. Eventually people will gene edit their children even with the best of intentions and then the cat will be out of the bag. Even if you decide to kill everyone that does it, it won't be easy to do so since, well, the elites of society are the elites for a reason, and they already break laws all the time for all sorts of shit, they'll absolutely uplift their children if possible. Secondly the only people who are going to have the means and motive to keep gene editing secret are... going to be rich fucks who want to enshrine a permanent caste system. Not to mention that currently human society is too fractured to create rules stopping things from happening. What if, say, the EU makes laws restricting the creation of genetic supermen, that's all well and good for the EU, but then the elites of China and America go ahead and enhance themselves? Now you still have the problem of enhanced elites, but the side that at least is somewhat interested in equality is at a disadvantage. A hypothetical future society that can draw together to the point where they can totally stop elites from doing shady things is honestly a society that's so far more egalitarian and unified then our own that it probably can realistically uplift everyone and so should anyway.

Ultimately, I'm pessimistic about the future, and think that if it is possible to create genetic supermen, it will end up enshrining a caste of elites that lord it over everyone else. But I'd agree that the only way to prevent this from happening is to create a society where everyone can be uplifted. It even flips the calculus of relative advantages that parts of society have over each other, if the EU uplifts everyone, and china and america only uplift the elites, the EU will be way better off and in the long term should out compete the non egalitarian societies

[MaxTheFox]

Unrealistic to think it would be. We have a class system in the first place because people like having systemic advantages, and genes are that.

I am a firm believer in democratic socialism. Also I feel taking the risk is better than the alternative of being stuck with inferior "natural" bodies.

Also yeah, what Criptfiend said. Once the tech for it is developed, if it is kept secret, all that will accomplish is empowering the rich with no counterplay, so to say. "Playing it safe" is a bad idea with such things and generally backfires.

[Scoops Novel]

If everyone gets it; it's still a fucking doozy. You'll end up with lots of smart people who also have genetically scrambled brains, which to me does not sound like a recipe for social stability. So many ways for it to go horribly wrong.

It's one of those things where we have to see if the future manages to knock that ball out of play.

[MaxTheFox]

If everyone gets it; it's still a fucking doozy. You'll end up with lots of smart people who also have genetically scrambled brains, which to me does not sound like a recipe for social stability. So many ways for it to go horribly wrong.

It's one of those things where we have to see if the future manages to knock that ball out of play.

Well no shit there will be societal upheaval. That comes with every major change. I'm fine with it, acceptable losses, bring it on.

[Scoops Novel]

"Acceptable losses" isn't the way the world works anymore. This is what every prepper gets wrong. In reality, Mad Max ends with a virus released by some barbaric idiot who nevertheless respects that concept.

The world is perfectly suited to spiral into fuck all if you shake it hard enough these days.

[MaxTheFox]

"Acceptable losses" isn't the way the world works anymore. This is what every prepper gets wrong. In reality, Mad Max ends with a virus released by some barbaric idiot who nevertheless respects that concept.

The world is perfectly suited to spiral into fuck-all if you shake it hard enough these days.

Meh. I disagree. Society is quite resilient.

[Great Order]

Eh, dunno about "resilient", it's certainly prone to major problems, but I think that it's not gonna completely collapse easily outside of something like major nuclear/biological/chemical warfare, which doesn't seem very likely.

[Scoops Novel]

Add in gene editing and those odds go wayyyyy up.

[MaxTheFox]

Eh, dunno about "resilient", it's certainly prone to major problems, but I think that it's not gonna completely collapse easily outside of something like major nuclear/biological/chemical warfare, which doesn't seem very likely.

Add in gene editing and those odds go wayyyyy up.

Of course, but do I look like I am afraid of taking risks?

[HmH]

Answer to the original poster: like Boatmurdered did.

One way to achieve anything like a win is to go out in such in a legendary display of stupidity and heroism that our history becomes memetic amongst the Human Planet's player base.

That, or survive for so long and spread so far across the universe that even their computers cannot bear us anymore.
I figure that's got to be quite an achievement in and of itself.

[Flying Dice]

You'd think we've had enough examples by now re: why releasing arbitrary changes to organisms and ecosystems into the wild with no real controlled-environment testing or forethought is a bad fucking idea.

But yeah, sure, deep and broad alteration of the human genome and phenotype imposed on the general population from above sounds like a great fuckin' plan.

What's been largely overlooked in this thread anyways is that the motive to finally take some eggs out of the pale blue basket is not idealism or desire to discover, it's going to be base greed. Terrestrial material resources are going to continue to decline, which will eventually prompt the development of orbital infrastructure to support resource harvesting elsewhere in the system. Once there's enough orbital lift capacity and need for warm bodies in space things will start to spiral, and once there are genetically stable populations off of Earth the natural tendency to expand will take care of the rest.

The actual problems of living and working in space are mostly understood, if not always solved very efficiently. Even if FTL continues to be a physical impossibility, extension of the human lifespan and the ability to do calculations re: resource consumption and living space makes generation ships viable in the longer run. That said, we've got plenty of time to work on the problem of interstellar travel as long as we manage to avoid any fucky wuckies here on Earth before we have stable offworld populations.

Hence my opposition to stupid shit like widespread unplanned genemodding or handing over control of important systems to AI.

[Great Order]

Hell, we don't need life extension technology. If we work out how to cryogenically preserve people and bring them back with acceptable (To those being frozen, of course) levels of fatalities we can do a solid job.

Heck, do an Interstellar and do that but with loads of embryos and a handful of people.

[Scoops Novel]

"Stable offworld populations" represents a new level of poverty. No one will ever want to spend their life off Earth without terraforming, and that's a 1000's years process.

[Telgin]

Space habitats are probably a more realistic option.  You can build them from resources mined from asteroids, use spin gravity, and there's no need to terraform a planet that may not have enough gravity to maintain long term health.