[ExI] Purified humanity Re: Your Genome Is a Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 6:07 AM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
> October 1, 2013 • By Michael White •
> Contrary to what you may have heard, your genome is not a highly
> sophisticated, finely tuned data storage and processing device. It’s a
> post-apocalyptic wasteland. Your 25,000 genes reside in a genetic
> landscape littered with the rubble of ancient and ongoing battles with
> hordes of viruses, clone armies of genetic parasites, and zombie genes
> that should be dead but aren’t.
>
### In the next 20 years we might have the technologies sufficient to
edit a human genome to remove all the garbage of the ages. No
endogenous viruses, a much shorter genome with enhanced copy
protection - imagine having no redundancy in genes, making most
mutations deadly - this would give a much smaller "mutational
cross-section" = many fewer parts to go wrong but if it goes wrong, it
goes all the way to necrosis, rather than becoming an undead enemy, a
neoplasm. The organism would be resilient, energetically efficient and
completely cancer-proof. And all that even before splicing in any
really new stuff.

I wonder what would be the performance of such an organism.

Rafal