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My mind surprises me sometimes.  I’m not just talking about my writing.  I expect that most people think writers are weird, maybe even schizophrenic with all those characters bouncing around in our heads.  (Followers of my “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy” will remember how the main character in Sing a Samba Galactica had three ET mentalities bouncing around in his—that was easy for me to write!)  No, I think it’s my training as a physicist—I observe the world around me and make strange connections between things.

This happened watching bits of the dog show that occurred last week.  (Never remember the name, but it happens around Thanksgiving every year.)  I started thinking about GMOs.  That Great Dane and Chihuahua are GMOs (for those who haven’t yet mastered the acronyms of the 21^st century, GMO means “genetically modified organism.”)  Humans have been making GMOs at least for 50,000 years—nothing new there.  I’ve mentioned this to several people, including two dear nieces, and the people I speak to usually respond, “Yes, but….”

I know where they’re coming from.  While corn in general isn’t a viable plant on its own (we’ve GM’d it to that point over thousands of years, starting from the original maiz), the “but” covers everything from Dolly to what Monsanto and friends do purely for profit and greed (I think I’m allowed to say that—Monsanto lawyers wouldn’t get much from this poor writer except protests from my friends).  Dolly, the clone, has something to do with the plot of my sci-fi thriller Full Medical.  Monsanto’s tinkering relates more to the theme of No Amber Waves of Grain.  In both stories, genetic modification becomes one of the villains.

However, Great Dane or Chihuahua lovers would miss their companions if humanity hadn’t GM’d the dogs.  What’s the difference?  The answer is simple: lay society has determined that dogs, our best friends (I like cats better, by the way), are good, while human clones and nasty viruses are bad.  Let’s consider that last bit of phrase.  If Dr. So-and-So can genetically engineer a virus that gobbles up pancreatic cancer cells, is that good or bad?

All I’m saying to the GMO protesters is that this issue, like most others, isn’t black or white.  Yet our reactions are often so emotional that we can’t analyze the GMO issue with cold logic.  GMO this or that—salmon, for example—is bad.  Period.  That’s what activists say.  Let’s not even consider the possibility that the GMO salmon is better quality (using any metric for better “salmon-ness” that you want) and potentially less expensive so that more people can afford to partake in that good nutrition.  It seems to me that if you logically compare that GMO salmon to the “real thing,” you will come up with fewer differences than those between a Great Dane and Chihuahua.

We can see this taken to the extreme.  Some African dictators have refused to accept GM’d disease-resistant corn—they prefer to let their people starve.  That’s a perfect analogy with the Amish couple who prefer that their daughter die from cancer instead of receiving chemotherapy.  In the first situation, I’d prefer to eat the corn to starvation.  But their people won’t have that choice.  They have to starve at their leader’s whim.  In the second situation, I just find it morally reprehensible.  I can imagine GM’d rice that’s resistant to all kinds of blights and viruses—said rice would save millions who otherwise would die of hunger.  That’s also morally reprehensible.

Using GMOs is a bit like using nuclear energy.  The problem isn’t in the use of the technology, it’s in insisting that humans use it responsibly.  Many GMOs have been accidents throughout history.  I’m sure there were many sick stomachs before good wine or yoghurt was fermented.  In fact, it almost makes you believe in intelligent design.  How else could such enjoyable things have been discovered—wine, yoghurt, Great Danes—without the ETs being around genetically engineering the goodies for us?

Of course, in all those cases the only intelligent design involved was many thousands of years of trial and error by humans.  Human beings were the designers, speeding up evolution even back then.  And there’s the rub.  Our GMOs today can be produced in a hurry by mucking around with DNA using varying biological engineering tricks.  Someday they will be able to muck around with telomeres so that people can live longer.  Many see a danger in that (I use the word “see” in a general sense—all too often logic goes out the window).  People see conspiracy in everything.  Even dogs and cats.  But what would the White House be without its labradoodles?

I’m all for GMO salmon and bio-engineered drugs, bacteria, and viruses that can save lives.  Just this last week several news items mentioned how advances in gene therapy are helping people survive stubborn blood cancers.  Do we eschew these research findings?  I’d say no!  The Big C is such a diversified and prevalent killer at all ages that more money is needed to go beyond the traditional and damaging chemotherapy and radiation therapy, refining it while looking for better alternatives.  Cancer is cell-based.  That fact alone says that bio-engineering cures must be looked at in great detail—we have a moral responsibility to do so.

I also believe that this technology—like computer and communication technology—is so complex that our legal systems are mostly incapable of handling the associated legal questions.  Technology is like the hare; our justice system is like the tortoise.  I don’t know what the solution is, be it immediate or long term.  I just know that the public had better put emotions aside and put on their thinking caps because these issues need cold logic.  And that includes people like lawyers and judges.  It’s like global warming.  As a scientist, I refuse to accept someone’s heated, illogical polemic as gospel when there are conflicting opinions.  But, as a writer, I’ll still write about the conspiracies.

And so it goes….

 

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 12th, 2013 at 4:20 am and is filed under Science, Technology, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.