1/. “How is it that scientists are not mystics? Cosmologists not poets? Biologists not shamans? How is it that those to whom the universe reveals such wonders, are not enraptured each day? And each night, how do they close their eyes on this?” (E Warner)
2/. “In the testes of every man are 200 million sperm
& each of those sperm is capable of producing a human life
& each in of those lives will be a soul
& in each of those souls will be a universe
& overnight, each man will produce 200 million more.”
3/. “You ask what I would do with those men who believe themselves to be Gods
My answer is simple
I would take them to the ocean & sail them three days out to sea in my rickety skiff, & I would watch their faces as a whale breached & barreled beside us.”
4/. James Watson, who discovered the structure of DNA, claimed that our fates lie in our genes, not in the stars
He was not a mystic or a poet
As science advances in its grasp of genetics, the further it seems to regress in its understanding of humanity.
5/. Most genome editing is limited to somatic cells & affects only certain tissues. Changes & are not passed from one generation to the next
But germline genome editing could pass changes to future generations, reshaping humanity
“Positive eugenics”?
6/. “You ask forgiveness, not permission” #PeterThiel
Thiel is a right-wing billionaire who set up #Palantir
Palantir rptdly taught data-scraping to #CambridgeAnalytica
They run the NHS #COVID data store & are doing the same in dozens of other countries
7/. “We’ve arranged a society based on science & technology, in which nobody understands anything about science & technology. This combustible mixture of ignorance & power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces.” Carl Sagan
That time is now👇
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.