All the Devils are Coming Out of Caves!

Xuefeng

There is no doubt that the genetic engineering now under way is of epoch significance and its future is immeasurable, but when we are complacent and blindly optimistic about it, believing that each mu of a field can produce ten thousand jin of grains and each fruit tree can produce ten thousand jin of fruits, that tomatoes can be bigger than watermelons and peaches can be sweeter than honey, that pigs can weigh a hundred kilograms after only half a month’s growth and skin and organs can be reproduced, that a new kind of medicine will satisfy people’s need for food for three months and needed species can be "cloned", and that diseases can be eradicated and cancer can be conquered to make people enjoy unlimited longevity, who would imagine that all the devils are coming out of the caves and that we might be facing doom at any time?

Genetic codes are the golden locks that maintain the relative ecological balance and stability of nature and that prevent the devils from coming out of the caves, but once they are unlocked, the following scenes are not just to scare you because they could happen at any time.

· You wake up to find that some people around you have grown tails and that their features and voices have changed because they have eaten animal meat from mutant genes.

· You call a friend who is thousands kilometers away, but only hear “chirp-chirp” noises coming out of your phone. You do not know that your friend has grown feathers and a beak from his mouth because he has eaten poultry or bird meat with mutant genes.

· You and your guests are happily drinking tea and chatting in the living room, when suddenly hundreds of cockroaches, bigger than eagles, crawl in from the kitchen because they have drunk water contaminated by specific genes.

· You are driving your family in your car, when suddenly the road ahead disappears as tens and thousands of hills rise before you. It turns out that potatoes have absorbed the soil nutrients contaminated by specific genes and are growing wildly like hills.

· You are sleeping soundly one night when you are suddenly awakened by the sounds of walls collapsing and sharp screams, so you open the windows and see hundreds of large rats, bigger than dogs, running through the yard and staring at you covetously.

· You come home from work and turn on a national television channel to watch the news, but no matter which channel you tune to, you find nothing, not even test patterns. In fact, the country has been infected with a gene that has rapidly mutated and spread, and everyone has gone mad and died within hours.

· You see plants growing wildly one day and learn that their reproduction and growth rates have grown faster than ants running. They spread over highways and bridges, climb mountains, float across rivers, occupy towns and cities, climb up tall trees and skyscrapers, and enter into caves and buildings, sweeping through to the the ends of the earth. In places where they reach, "From hill to hill no bird in flight. From path to path no man in sight.”

The devils are out of the caves and strange things will happen. The mortal world is no longer the one that we have known. People do not look like human, wolves are not wolf-like, and some plants grow wildly as some animals die instantly. At this point, any regrets are much too late.

Perhaps people believe that through the efforts of scientists from different places, we will be able to handle the issues of genetic engineering rationally and cautiously and will not act recklessly. We can only hope!

The point is that no one can be so sure that they have mastered all the secrets of gene interactions and can guarantee that there will not be gene hackers. Computer hackers can only crack passwords and disrupt programs, but gene hackers could push all of us into an abyss.

In order to protect nature’s ecological balance and in order to maintain our survival and development, we hope that governments and scientists who are involved with bioengineering will be extremely cautious. It would be better to suspend its development for a century than to act recklessly or to compete with each other for the most radical and extreme advancements.

We must avoid catastrophes that are waiting to happen.