Western Civilization And Genomics
Western civilization has had a really good run, something like 2500 years. It’s been awesome!
For no particular reasons, let’s take a look at some of western civilizations greatest highs… and lows! As they pertain to genomics that is…
First up, we’ve got Isaac Newton! That’s right! We’re starting with a physicist! Before western civilization could really get going on the whole genomics thing we needed to invent science first.
And for that we credit Isaac Newton. Isaac Newton, last alchemist, first scientist.
With science we slowly dragged ourselves out of the swamp of occult mysticism and onto the firm ground of scientific rationality.
We figured out that inheritance was a thing. That natural selection was a thing. And that DNA was a thing that was involved in this process.
…there was then some awkwardness which sidetracked western civilization for a while…
…but we were back up and running with discovery of the structure of DNA by a number of individuals resulting in a not at all awkward series of events1.
Once we knew how it fitted together, we had to figure out how to read it. First with really bad methods, then slightly better ones getting better, and better and better.
To the point we can now sequence individual human genomes for a few thousand dollars.
Individuals now have the opportunity to inspect the very fabric of their biology. That feels like a fundamental change in the nature of what it means to be human, introspective abilities that we couldn’t have conceived of 2500 years ago.
So congrats western civilization! You've done great!
I wonder what happens next?!
It’s super-awkward…