Mosquitos — Would You Miss 'Em?

Mosquitos. Would anyone miss 'em?

Malaria, chikungunya, dengue, yellow fever? Genetically modified mosquitos unable to reproduce? Sounds like a great idea.

Tweaking transdermal fallout into designer-CRISPR targeting means just lobbing a DNA-Bomb, quaintly called a "D-NAB," as in, "Let's just D-NAB 'em." D-NAB the endemic regions: mosquitos are history in one generation--half a season. Great!

They're vampires, after all, created from the depths of depraved evolutionary engineering. Each one of the little bastards is a juggernaut swarming my evenings. I sit in my chair, seeing my blood siphoned, each dire drop miscible between time and tears. It's why my nails aren't cut short, stained as they are from the fabrics I scratch.

It was our big brains versus their bloodlust of reproductive rights; capitalistic designs versus swamp land.

The bigger the brain, the more unwieldy the gait; the more unwieldy the gait, the bigger the fall when that big brain hits the pavement.

It's called tripping up. History is replete with it.

Something in me says don't muck with genomes to thwart perfection. Caveats lose to fallacies! Perfection is in the double helix of the beholder. Are we not arrogant thinking we can modify Creation just to discourage their feeding frenzy? Just to eliminate our inconvenience?

Wouldn't it be more noble to modify myself with DEET?

As a species, our various insecurities spill over into our best-laid plans. I've read our history. I fear that stepping (stumbling?) into new, uncharted genomic strategies is just the latest of many clever--but ultimately tragic--bad ideas. Genetic modification toward extinction? Even if it's just those damned mosquitos? Shouldn't we think long and hard about this before someone extrapolates it?

Can anything good come from this? Who decides where D-NABs drop? Who decides upon whom?

The homeless--would you miss 'em? What about the losers--would you miss 'em? Homosexuals? Migrants? Cherry-picked minorities? Catholics, Protestants, Muslims--their respective infidels--would you miss 'em? The handicapped? Felons and their offspring?

Your neighbors, addicts, and ugly people--would you miss 'em? When are pains-in-the-ass legislated as persona non grata?

Teachers--would you miss 'em? (That depends on what they're teaching. Our stuff? Their stuff?)

Burning genes is like burning books just because you can't read between the lines.