This is as sad as watching the Terminator try to kill people with a broken gun. Alexa, play “in the arms of the angels”
We have suffered for millions of years under mosquitos are they are likely the biggest killer of humans in history. Maybe us evolving big brains and developing genetic engineering is an evolutionary necessity?
Or as Harbinger said: “We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it.”
Is that mass effect?
Yep :)
Drew Karpyshyn really knocked that conversation out of the park. One of the very best scenes in gaming history.
See, that is why you’d want actual authors to do your game’s story for you…
On the one hand this is creepy as hell
On the other fuck mosquitoes
Great. First science was making the frogs gay. Now it’s turning the mosquitos trans.
What’s next? Lesbian amoebas? Pansexual algae? Non-binary seahorses?
Has science gone too far?
Has science gone too far?
No
I get the feeling of discomfort but it’s basically the same feeling we get when someone breaks a pencil
There is no evidence that a mosquito is capable of feeling the kind of despair or horror that a human would feel in a similar situation. It’s unlikely that mosquitos can form emotions at all.
At the same time, a huge portion of human-animal interactions involve the human controlling the animal in ways that they animal can’t even comprehend. A dog has no idea you’re doing operant conditioning to change their behavior. Pigs have no idea they’re being fed just so they and their children can be eaten.
The only way to avoid this kind of thing is to turn off your big human brain and go back to ape tier. We might need to go farther down the tier list than that though https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gombe_Chimpanzee_War
I’d like to see any scientific study that reassures at least a little that this won’t have terrible ramifications for ecosystems and the food chain.
We know too little, we are shortsighted and we have a bad record of intervening with nature.
It’s a pretty ineffective strategy, but I’m just going off this one photo.
If it’s genetic, and the females can’t get a blood meal, then they won’t lay any eggs to pass on those genetics and just die.
Then the ones without that gene will lay all their eggs and the next generation will be unchanged and they have to spend all that money again to do whatever they did which had no effect.
Knowing a bit about crispr my understanding is that crispr is the technology that can be used to circumvent that scenario by making the effects kind of like an genetic time bomb
I get the caution about unintended consequences but damnit of all the crazy planetary issues we’re dealing with right now, I’d rank
“oops, got rid of West Nile and Malaria as well as annoying little red bumps from wandering too far from big cities”
As a win, the consequences of which we can probably figure out how to deal with when we come to it.
I know it doesn’t work that way but I’d trade all the world’s mosquitoes to keep the polar bears or pangolins or something any day.
Mosquitoes are the bottom of the food chain. There’s reason to be worried about this getting out of hand
DIE, DIE, DIE
Genetically engineer them to grow to the size of Cessna. Ride them to battle
This is amazing. Far better than killing them off.
Shouldn’t you include /s tag here
Not a biologist, but it actually is better on paper. They can still pierce other animals. Just not humans. They stay part of the food chain for amphibians and birds or what not, we don’t get malaria. Seems like a win-win.
This is what vegans want. They want to take your virile bloodsucking proboscus and replace it with a limp dick fruit licker.
BAN ALL VEGANS
(Small /s)
I am a hippy nature person who tries to be merciful and kind to plants or insects. The exceptions are mosquitoes and ticks. Those fuckers want to take my blood and dont settle for one serving if they get the chance. Were in a biological armrace and so far we’ve been loosing. Let’s see how they like being fucked with.
Also ticks.
I would take 100 mosquito bites over one tick. One of the only creatures in nature to scare the hell out of me. And I own snakes.
Ahh, someone else who views the risks correctly. Spent a lot of time in the swamps in Alabama. Wore snake gaiters for the giant cotton mouths. Soaked my clothes in permethrin. Still way more scared of the ticks than the snakes. Especially that Alphagal stuff.
Who knew this whole time I was team mossie
That seems mild.
Could we try to convince the males that they are the ugliest things on earth so they find large animals that can step on them?
Maybe come up with a liquid that you put in standing water that makes the mosquitoes grow very tiny legs and a very large left wing? You know, so they have to fly to move and they can only fly spinning like crazy.
I got a better one! Make them neon bright and glow in the dark. Make those fuckers be the center of attention. I’m talking kids with nets and old guys with cameras and microscopes with single mosquito flashes (like 1 mosquitoes per photo). And of course sugar sweet flavor? Everything under the sun trying to find them and eat them as snacks. I kinda like this one the best.
And this is it. This is how we arrived where we are now.
Nature? KILL IT! EXTERMINATE IT!
We’ve spend 2000 years slowly beeting nature to our wims. It has destroyed the planets ecosystem on a scale only seen by planet wide desasters in the past. We have driven countless species into extinction, and still counting. We take without any regard or resecpt for anything then our own needs.
That is exactly the mindset the comment I am replying to has to me.
Neon bright mosquitoes that glow in the dark? Heck yeah! I’ll keep some in a jar for Halloween 🎃😄!
Yes!
Total mutual destruction is the only way™
This is a crime against nature and god and decency, and mosquitos are probably the only place I’d be absolutely, completely for it.
There are probably a few handfuls of other parasites that would count too.
Yeah, do ticks next!
Then, landlords!
And toll road authorities!
Why are people just repeating the same thing over and over?
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Uh, that’s what he said wasn’t it?
Fuck bedbugs!
Animal farming is a crime against nature, god and decency and we’re completely for that too, don’t forget