Sweet Begezus! Didn't they watch that Twilight Zone episode?

[rcjordan]

Genetically mutated rats could be released in Britain to solve rodent problem

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/12/05/genetically-mutated-rats-could-released-britain-solve-rodent/

[littleman]

I guess this type of stuff scares me less than most people.  I remember last year they were going to release genetically modified mosquitoes to counter the Zika virus in Florida and they got all up in arms about it.  To me it seems the very real threat of Zika was much more scary than some notion of a Franken-mosquito, especially when the modification was to make them  infertile.

[rcjordan]

It's the mutation/evolution that makes these of concern.  Like you, I don't get too worked up over any single event but we humans have a good track record of fucking up things that are supposedly failsafe if we do enough of them.

New species can develop in as little as two generations, Galapagos study finds

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171124084320.htm

[littleman]

Related:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/dec/04/us-military-agency-invests-100m-in-genetic-extinction-technologies

[Brad]

This is the endgame, after they kill off all humans it's mutant killer rats VS AI killer robots.

[rcjordan]

...and cockroaches. Don't forget the cockroaches.

When I was a kid, I read a sci-fi comic book that told a tale of scientists inventing a teleporting machine that could retrieve small, random objects from the future.  They were bringing back all sorts of fantastic artifacts. Then they happened to bring back a small statue of a group of cockroaches worshiping a cockroach-like deity.

[Brad]

I forgot about roaches.