My environment shapes me far more than my genes. I know this because I'm not the same person who woke up this morning. Sure, my genes may predispose me to Alzheimers or Diabetes or cancer. They drive my physical characteristics, and maybe much more. But my essence is not pre-destined by my genes.
an analysis of your genome might tell you that you should pursue a startup that makes use of sophisticated mathematics.
Are there any participants here who can point to some genetic research on how likely it is that genome analysis will ever be that specific on the individual level?
It's an intriguing idea that seems to be associated with Soviet-era training and the mechanization of human beings, coerced into insect-like castes, as in Brave New World, and the lovely short-story Unaccompanied Sonatahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unaccompanied_Sonata (or Ender's Game itself for that matter.)
I know you don't mean coercion, but simply informed choice; but I think the rebuttal is the same: our theories are not adequate to predict such things, even if we had all the information; especially when factors like 10,000 hours of practice and motivation seem so important. At best, they can suggest a probability distribution. Or: you don't know til you try.
I guess some specifics could be useful, like a probability distribution of expected height for a baby, for his/her potential as a basketball player. However, at the very young age where genome knowledge is most effective (by revealing as yet unexpressed traits). the baby is not able to make a choice. So it would effectively be Soviet-era training.
Parrots and dogs will tear apart their environments (and sometimes their bodies) under certain circumstances, such as extended loneliness. Seems similar to human depression.
Yes, my housemate's dog has separation anxiety which is not good (but he was adopted from a shelter).
We hypothesize he gets all anxious because when we are leaving and locking him in his (reinforced) cage - he doesn't know if we'll ever return. Which is different from humans - as in we know that it is only a matter of time.
Comments
This will change in the future: everyone will know early on in life what their capabilities are based on analysis of their DNA.
My environment shapes me far more than my genes. I know this because I'm not the same person who woke up this morning. Sure, my genes may predispose me to Alzheimers or Diabetes or cancer. They drive my physical characteristics, and maybe much more. But my essence is not pre-destined by my genes.
Do you really think that people can set all of their personal goals just from knowing their genome?
Your genome will give you critical information about the sorts of things you would be good at.
For example, an analysis of your genome might tell you that you should pursue a startup that makes use of sophisticated mathematics.
The specifics of that startup are up to you.
I think it would be much more effective to evaluate whether you're actually good at sophisticated mathematics.
an analysis of your genome might tell you that you should pursue a startup that makes use of sophisticated mathematics.
Are there any participants here who can point to some genetic research on how likely it is that genome analysis will ever be that specific on the individual level?
It's an intriguing idea that seems to be associated with Soviet-era training and the mechanization of human beings, coerced into insect-like castes, as in Brave New World, and the lovely short-story Unaccompanied Sonata http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unaccompanied_Sonata (or Ender's Game itself for that matter.)
I know you don't mean coercion, but simply informed choice; but I think the rebuttal is the same: our theories are not adequate to predict such things, even if we had all the information; especially when factors like 10,000 hours of practice and motivation seem so important. At best, they can suggest a probability distribution. Or: you don't know til you try.
I guess some specifics could be useful, like a probability distribution of expected height for a baby, for his/her potential as a basketball player. However, at the very young age where genome knowledge is most effective (by revealing as yet unexpressed traits). the baby is not able to make a choice. So it would effectively be Soviet-era training.
Depression is not unique to humans. So I suspect it's a little more complex and fundamental than a failure to understand your limitations.
Depression is not unique to humans.
What animal model of depression do you have in mind?
Parrots and dogs will tear apart their environments (and sometimes their bodies) under certain circumstances, such as extended loneliness. Seems similar to human depression.
Yes, my housemate's dog has separation anxiety which is not good (but he was adopted from a shelter).
We hypothesize he gets all anxious because when we are leaving and locking him in his (reinforced) cage - he doesn't know if we'll ever return. Which is different from humans - as in we know that it is only a matter of time.
This review, and its references, are a little dated, so I presume that the animal models are much more sophisticated by now:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-1819.1990.tb00461.x