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[entremet]

This is also a specific species of mosquito as shown in the OP.

 

[Quixzlizx]

Yep. Exactly. Gotta love all these human beings that are ready to play god. Fucking morons

"Playing God" is such an intellectually lazy criticism that anyone can use to bemoan any deviancy from the status quo.

Artificially generating electricity is playing god.

 

[Orbis Tabula]

Yep. Exactly. Gotta love all these human beings that are ready to play god. Fucking morons

Look at this guy. Judging people. Quit playing God!

 

[entremet]

We've been playing God since the agricultural age.

 

[greatestjediever]

Can they start applying this to Tiger mosquitoes yet? Cause fuck those guys.

 

[Ray Wonder]

I heard about this a while ago on Radio Lab. All I have to say is:

Fuck mosquitoes. Let's "play god". They are the only reason I don't like being outdoors in the evenings. Have to spray yourself in repellent to keep them away. Just rid the world of them.

 

[Oppo]

Yep. Exactly. Gotta love all these human beings that are ready to play god. Fucking morons

man I hope you can walk after the paddling you received in here

you deserved it tho

 

[Slayven]

 

[DrROBschiz]

I heard about this a while ago on Radio Lab. All I have to say is:

Fuck mosquitoes. Let's "play god". They are the only reason I don't like being outdoors in the evenings. Have to spray yourself in repellent to keep them away. Just rid the world of them.

Cheers brother

I will happily live in a post mosquito world and all the consequences it brings (there will be no negative consequences)

That said... this method still isn't what i consider to the scale of complete eradication though

Cannot wait to see the results though

 

[Terra Firma]

Uhh...

If their offspring cannot mature enough to reach reproductive age, how do they plan on having this trait gain dominance?

 

[DrROBschiz]

Uhh...

If their offspring cannot mature enough to reach reproductive age, how do they plan on having this trait gain dominance?

They dont

They would have to breed normal mosquitos continually and mass produce them as needed..

:/

Hence while this is a great idea its still limited in the scope of the job at hand. Still it should be worth it to at least reduce populations in human occupied areas.

 

[Mirk]

Err if we kill off all of them how are they going to clone us and put us in a park in the future?

 

[EmptyCanO'wupass]

It's great that they finally got approval to try this here.

For those with doubts, I suggest reading this great New Yorker piece on the same company from a few years ago: Here

 

[Anoregon]

Just in case it wasn't already made clear: ONLY female mosquitoes actually bite people, so releasing a bunch of new males can't really have a negative impact one way or another.

Unless of a course an animal that eats male mosquitoes begins to thrive in greater numbers and destroys us.

 

[Mudcrab]

People tripping over themselves on just world fallacy in this thread.

But my video game morality!

 

[Vyrance]

I believe they performed something similar in Brazil recently with another type of mosquito and saw pretty good success

 

[Pejo]

Now what happens when Florida Man is arrested for having sex with the genetically modified mosquitoes?

Also, good. I hate mosquitoes so much. And Gnats while i'm at it.

 

[Kettch]

Just in case it wasn't already made clear: ONLY female mosquitoes actually bite people, so releasing a bunch of new males can't really have a negative impact one way or another.

Yeah, and the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park can't mate either. I've seen this before!

 

[Mocha Nova Coffee Scotia]

Damn it Science! Can't you see what this will do to Mosquito culture?! Mosquitos feeling like they have no choice but to join a mercenary group called "The Blood Pack" because they know they'll never have kids.

 

[Robot Pants]

Basically the plot of Species except with Florida Man.

Florida Man origin story

 

[Brannon]

Mosquito are still part of ecological system people :
#notallmosquitoes

Well we're not talking about the good ones, just the bloods.

 

[User 73706]

 

[Dennis]

We should infect them with Cordyceps instead. What could go wrong?

 

[Tempy]

It's not new at all. We successfully eradicated the screw fly in 1982 using a similar method.

I guess you could say they got screwed.

 

[Stinkles]

People tripping over themselves on just world fallacy in this thread.

Not me. Biting mosquitoes are not a necessary part of the food chain.

 

[ReAxion]

I immediately refute science because I played a video game.

 

[User 73706]

We should infect them with Cordyceps instead. What could go wrong?

No, no, we infect humans with Cordyceps to make them immune and give them a heightened vulnerability to mosquito-transmitted diseases to steal their mosquito powers, duh.

 

[Off-Kilter]

This made me laugh so hard

 

[Stet]

Uhh...

If their offspring cannot mature enough to reach reproductive age, how do they plan on having this trait gain dominance?

The trait doesn't gain dominance. Each generation will have fewer and fewer viable offspring as the modified males outcompete the naturally born males.

It's a continual intervention, but it seriously cuts down on the size of the population.

 

[theepicoftyler]

The top level explanation of this is scary to people, but there isn't a pathway for this to spread outside of what is put into effect manually.

The strategy is to release this one generation sterilizes/development inhibitors into a local, human dense area. Not to try to drive mosquitoes to extinction. This is actually really important with the incredibly high rates of malaria and dengue fever in some areas of the world.

 

[see5harp]

I don't give a shit about mosquitos. Eradicate them.

 

[davepoobond]

Florida...
Injecting mosquito eggs with synthetic DNA...
Releasing sufficient numbers...

This is going to end badly.

How do you perceive this ending badly? What do you think will happen that isn't already bad? Mosquitoes spread disease like crazy.

 

[Red]

There is nothing good about mosquitos and they deserve to all die horribly.

 

[Monochromaticx]

"Playing God" is such an intellectually lazy criticism that anyone can use to bemoan any deviancy from the status quo.

Artificially generating electricity is playing god.

Stop playing god with your logical posts. I am offended.

 

[Az]

How do you perceive this ending badly? What do you think will happen that isn't already bad? Mosquitoes spread disease like crazy.

Florida.

 

[Sesuadra]

exactly what came into my mind..

 

[PSqueak]

Came for this, leaving a satisfied costumer.

But yeah, i can see this backfiring in some enviromental disaster way.

 

[Ishida]

"They cannot reproduce."

 

[metalslimer]

I can't imagine removing them from the ecosystem could be worse than the diseases they spread

 

[Veritigo_X]

How do you perceive this ending badly? What do you think will happen that isn't already bad? Mosquitoes spread disease like crazy.

It was a joke. I can see the benefit and I'm sure they have everything under control.

 

[Con_Smith]

Fuck those things man, those and roaches both. I took a little walk outside with my kid this morning and had to punch one from landing on his head.

 

[gryvan]

Something something Mansquito (hilarious Syfy B movie)

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Kill all mosquitos

ayyyyyy this.


destroy their entire species.

 

[Toxi]

Man that's awesome. Kill all mosquitos

This isn't going to kill all mosquitoes, this is going to kill many of the species Aedes aegypti, an extremely widespread invasive species that is a vector for many diseases.

So many people don't seem to get this when talking about genetic mosquito control.

The top level explanation of this is scary to people, but there isn't a pathway for this to spread outside of what is put into effect manually.

The strategy is to release this one generation sterilizes/development inhibitors into a local, human dense area. Not to try to drive mosquitoes to extinction. This is actually really important with the incredibly high rates of malaria and dengue fever in some areas of the world.

This too. Just significantly reducing the number of those mosquitoes is going to have an immense positive effect and is much easier than spreading genetically modified ones over a larger area. Less mosquitoes that can transmit diseases next to people means less chance of the remaining disease vectors biting infected people.

 

[Eos]

Yeah i heard about this on the radio a couple of months ago
Fuck mosquitoes

 

[PSqueak]

This isn't going to kill all mosquitoes, this is going to kill many of the species Aedes aegypti, an extremely widespread invasive species that is a vector for many diseases.

So many people don't seem to get this when talking about genetic mosquito control.

Oh, this changes everything, then this asshole species is already disrupting shit in the enviroment,eh?

Yeah, get rid of them.

 

[Bare Grills]

Mosquitoes were a mistake. They are nothing but trash.

 

[Toxi]

Oh, this changes everything, then this asshole species is already disrupting shit in the enviroment,eh?

Yeah, get rid of them.

They almost exclusively bite people. They probably don't affect the rest of the environment much.

But I think giving people dengue fever is a pretty good reason to exterminate most of them. Genetic control does the job with none of the collateral damage of pesticides or draining.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Assuming they've actually done proper research into how this will affect the larger ecosystem, I'm all for this.

That's a big caveat, however.

 

[OmegaX]

I don't understand this plan: If these modified mosquitoes have a gene that doesn't let them reach adulthood, how are they going to breed to pass on that gene?