Co-founder of The Carlyle Group, David Rubenstein, speaks with Jennifer Doudna, a Nobel laureate and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, about the moral and ethical implications of advancements in genetic editing technology and the importance of keeping an open mind towards scientific exploration.
The podcast discusses the passing down of the entire genetic code through ancestry, the focus on hyper-attention in mutation, and executing on those mutations to understand them better.
The constant progress of technology and our attachment to it could lead to people ignoring the potential risks and threats posed in biology as well as DNA synthesis. The building of black box circuitry by manufacturers of DNA synthesis equipment is worrying as it checks the synthesis of circuits nonpublicly, and similar things may be happening in biology.
The speaker believes that the scientific community should be more open-minded when it comes to implementing new technologies and that effective communication is important for the success of scientific solutions such as vaccines. Silence can lead to division and lack of trust within the community.
The advancement in CRISPR technology has raised concerns regarding the possibility of creating genetically engineered babies capable of living an exceptionally long life, leading to the question of where to draw the ethical line for gene editing.
In this excerpt, the speaker discusses the concept of fulfilling personal goals and its role in human history, as opposed to seeking a "ground truth" ethics.