GENE DRIVES

Even the most enlightened and comprehensive regime of gene drives won't abolish traditional natural selection altogether. If a genetic alteration is slightly harmful to an organism, perhaps like exceedingly high pain-tolerance, then the engineered gene drive would eventually break. More severe harms would break the drive over shorter evolutionary time-scales. Under a regime of compassionate stewardship, broken versions of a gene drive would eventually need overwriting with new and more robust functional copies. Also, biohackers - or state actors - with different ethical priorities may unleash competing gene drives. So-called "immunising drives" block another gene drive from spreading by pre-emptively altering the sequences that another drive targets, thereby preventing it from initiating copying. Pranksters, mischief-makers, genetic open-source enthusiasts and "script kiddies" could all potentially wreak ecological havoc with "rogue" drives, not just incompetent idealists. Gene drives..