Similarly, the crime for which Shiva was exiled, the deliberate release of a virus that genetically tweaked coral reefs to increase their odds of survival, is not so completely far-fetched. As oceans warm and grow more acidic, corals have a harder and harder time surviving. The best estimate is that, by 2100, roughly half of all coral species in existence today will go extinct. But, of course, there are some corals that thrive in extremely warm water or extremely acidic water. They’re able to because of various genes they carry that have evolved for those conditions. In 2012, two research projects set out to find the genes that allow some coral species to survive in warm waters. It’s not a large leap to imagine a similar project searching for acidity-survival genes. And from there, the idea of deliberately transplanting such genes into corals that are struggling becomes rather tempting. Of course, this would certainly constitute the release of a “GMO” into the wild, and it would be met with tremendous opposition. (A simpler, less controversial, path would be to transport coral “cuttings” from hardy species into areas where corals are dying. Of course, given the millions of square miles of coral reefs in the world’s oceans, that would also be incredibly more labor intensive.)
If you’re interested in more on human enhancement and particularly the frontiers of neuroscience, you may want to read my non-fiction book, More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement. If you’re interested in the impact of climate change and other natural resource challenges – and the science and technology to overcome those problems – you may like my other non-fiction book, The Infinite Resource: The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet.
And of course, if you enjoyed this book, the very nicest thing you can do for me is to let the world know, by telling your friends, by posting about it online, and by leaving a review of this book at Amazon or whatever sites you use to buy and discover books.
We live in the most interesting age humanity has ever seen. I can’t wait to see what happens next. I hope you’ll all join me on that adventure.
R.N.
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Kill or cure
An Angry Robot paperback original 2013
© Ramez Naam 2013
Ramez Naam asserts the moral right to be
identified as the author of this work.
UK ISBN 978 0 85766 295 8
US ISBN 978 0 85766 296 5
Ebook ISBN 978 0 85766 297 2
Cover design by Argh! Oxford
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