The biggest reason it may be different this time is previously we were all like, “let’s exterminate dogs,” and it turns out dogs are important. This time is more like “let’s exterminate pitbulls.” There will still be plenty of mosquitos around if the plan is ever put into motion, we are only targeting a very small slice of them. That doesn’t mean there won’t be issues, it could well be just as big a mistake as all the previous times. But at least it is more likely to work out.
What makes you so confident that this super sophisticated “selective targeting” is 100% guaranteed, in a world where nothing is absolute and we can only be 99.9-n% sure of anything? What if the talking chimps, with a few decades education, missed something and end up accidentally exterminating all mosquitos? What if it spreads to other arthropods with a similar DNA and “exterminates” insect species around the world? Are any of these risks worth the reward?
The biggest reason it may be different this time is previously we were all like, “let’s exterminate dogs,” and it turns out dogs are important. This time is more like “let’s exterminate pitbulls.” There will still be plenty of mosquitos around if the plan is ever put into motion, we are only targeting a very small slice of them. That doesn’t mean there won’t be issues, it could well be just as big a mistake as all the previous times. But at least it is more likely to work out.
What makes you so confident that this super sophisticated “selective targeting” is 100% guaranteed, in a world where nothing is absolute and we can only be 99.9-n% sure of anything? What if the talking chimps, with a few decades education, missed something and end up accidentally exterminating all mosquitos? What if it spreads to other arthropods with a similar DNA and “exterminates” insect species around the world? Are any of these risks worth the reward?