What are the impacts of human genome sequencing?
The potential impact is the end of all disease, possibly the end of aging. Yes, the possibility of immortality is very seductive, though it may be a bit pie-in-the-sky. I think that understanding the building blocks of human beings is fundamental to understanding what human beings are. It’s essential to understanding ourselves. But beyond that, I think it will mean tremendous advances in medicine very soon. Even if immortality isn’t realistic, I think all our notions of life expectancy are going to radically change in the next few years because of the understanding we’re gaining from having sequenced the genome. It’s a wonderful time to be alive, I think. Here’s more info from Wikipedia: The work on interpretation of genome data is still in its initial stages. It is anticipated that detailed knowledge of the human genome will provide new avenues for advances in medicine and biotechnology. Clear practical results of the project emerged even before the work was finished. For example, a n
