Regarding gene silencing:

Given the discussion of eugenics on the history segment, who’s to say gene silencing would be limited to agriculture. I can see the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries jumping on board with this with all guns blazing.

“Don’t like the colour of your hair? Want your skin to be lighter? Buy this spray.”

“We have a way of preventing your (cancer/lupis/insert disease of choice) with a spray.”

And once we can turn genes on and off, who’s to say that you won’t be able to one day be able to prevent those “bad” genes from being propagated to the next generation? Or what side effects gene silencing might have.

Scary stuff…

I will take a stab at the gene silencing argument. I think that it would be much less scary with more understanding. My background: I have a PhD in Biochemistry and worked with gene silencing and gene editing technology in bacteria. I have since left science to found a totally unrelated company. I am not involved with commercial agriculture but do grow a significant portion of my food in my garden without any sprays or synthetic fertilizer.

This technology works by binding to a specific sequence in the virus, bacteria or insect and stopping the process for making a specific protein. Quick tutorial: DNA sequence is copied to make an single stranded RNA molecule. The RNA sequence is then translated into a protein sequence. RNA interference works in basically the same way as noise cancelling. A sequence is chosen that is within an important RNA molecule and a bunch of RNA molecules are created that is an exact complement to that sequence. This causes the RNA molecule to no longer be able to be translated into a protein. If this protein is really important, the virus/bacterium/insect dies. This process is going on in your body as we speak; there have been over 1000 such interfering RNA genes found in the human genome.

OK, so as long as the organism is capable of taking in these RNA molecules AND the sequence matches to its genes then it will work on that organism. About your worries of off target effects: advances of DNA sequencing technology have allowed for almost all of life to be sequenced. Scientists have even sequenced soil, ocean water etc to get the DNA sequences of organisms that had never been identified before. Genomes are both really big and really diverse. You can easily pick a sequence that would both be lethal to the target organism or organisms but have a negligible affect on any other life form.

Compare this to insecticides which have broad activity to insects and also make humans and animals sick. If implemented correctly, RNA silencing technology is way safer, period. Can someone implement it incorrectly and kill off some microbe? Of course, but that is true of almost every technology. Pesticides could be incorrectly diluted or sprayed over an apiary with catastrophic results but they are still legal and used everywhere.

Why is this a good thing, even for organic farming? Farmers could, in theory protect their crops from any disease or pest almost as if squishing them. Squash borers, tomato wilt viruses, etc could be controlled without impacting any other organism. Farmers would have higher yield and less chance of crop failure. Do I think that this will be embraced by organic farmers? Of course not, it will be lumped together with genetic modification (which I have my own opinions on) and rejected out of hand.

That said, it will have a positive impact on organic farming even without organic farmers using it. Industrial agriculture could use RNA silencing to control the specific pests on their crops, boosting diversity of organisms that would normally be killed by pesticides. Also, this technology doesn’t rely on any genetic modification. There is no chance of cross pollination across fence lines. These molecules break down in the span of weeks, way better than pesticides so farmers don’t have to worry what is in their irrigation or drinking water.

There are my two cents. Like automation, this technology is coming. Gene editing and gene silencing will have a bigger impact on our lives than antibiotics did 100 years ago. Get ready for it.

The part about unexpected positive physical action reminds me of Kel-Tec. Looking at their products circa 2000, nothing special, just a smallish 9mm of dubious quality and an underpowered pocket peashooter. But a funny thing happened: people started sharing info online about how to make the darn things work right. They made their own mods to improve ergonomics. Then they started shooting the spitwads at homemade ballistics gel out in the desert to quantify actual ballistics performance. (This is commonplace now but at the time it was downright weird.) Fast forward to today; Ruger and SCCY are openly making copies of those early Kel-Tec products. Unexpected positive physical action…

Jack,

With all due respect, I think you got the student loan thing wrong. The End Game is Free Money for Everyone. Grandma / Grandpa are not going to be paying back the student loans. Just like the kids that take on loans these days are not going to pay them back.

If you work for a government or not for profit after 120 qualifying payments the loan balance is forgiven under Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program. (Beware: don’t choose the 10 year pay back otherwise their will not be a balance to forgive)

https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service

An income-driven repayment plan sets your monthly student loan payment at an amount that is intended to be affordable based on your income and family size.

income-driven repayment plans:
• Revised Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan (REPAYE Plan)
• Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan (PAYE Plan)

If you are on the REPAYE Plan, you only have to make payments which are generally 10% of discretionary income. So what is discretionary income? (They use your AGI to determine that look on your tax return).

https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/understand/plans/income-driven#monthly-payments

You can run the numbers.

https://studentloans.gov/myDirectLoan/mobile/repayment/repaymentEstimator.action#view-repayment-plans&ui-state=dialog

After 20 years (undergraduate loans) or 25 years (graduate loans) on the repayment plan your loans are forgiven. If Grandma and Grandpa don’t make it to loan forgiveness and expire they don’t have to be burden with any worry at all. If you die they discharge the loan.

The only real risk is if you actually think you will make taxable money. Then this is not for you. But if Grandma or Grandpa is on Social Security and do not have other income than why not get a loan that they will never have to pay back. The government cannot (should not) discriminate, right. Everyone get qualified for free Govt money! Government doesn’t care if you will pay it back.

If you have reached your earning potential and are on a fixed income, if you want a little extra spending money (for the cost of going to school ;), if you itemize your taxes just right with business expenses , and if you are willing to wait it out. You will never have to pay back any of the student loan money. That is how the game is played.

Jack do you think people who got trapped by the education system and student loans should go ahead and sign up for the income based repayment plan? The interest will continue to compound if the loan is not being payed but if you think you can manage your income and grow a business or some way to avoid a higher AGI for 20 to 25 years (most your adult life) than that money is forgiven. What are some other pitfalls you think government will play with this student loan debacle?

As a young person the student loan game. Start up and/or work for a non-for profit for 10 years. Get experience wipe the slate clean. Then start making your $. (Warning: if you take my advice you do so at your own risk. I accept no liability for anything I do or say).

Follow your passion even when most people are against you. It seems like an uphill battle sometimes. No I’m not a snowflake, but for some reason the things I’m passionate about, many including family members are against and even some here on the TSP. Personally I say follow your passion and strengthen your convictions even in the face of negativity. Limit your exposure to the negativity by surrounding yourself by people that agree with you. Though don’t ever give up on those negative people. Ignorant people are not necessarily stupid, they just don’t see things in the same light as you.

I for one, will not give up and challenge all TSP’rs to do the same. Follow your passion.