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?
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 :)
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
One day we will be Gods
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.
We gave a mosquito gender dysphoria?
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
As a Brazilian, I won’t feel sorry for these fuckers.
I’m from Buenos Aires and I say kill 'em all!
The only good bug is a dead bug.
Genetically engineer them to grow to the size of Cessna. Ride them to battle
Ok but mosquitoes historically are the #1 killers of humans, by an order of magnitude. This could be argued as a form of evolution. We simply engineered them out as a threat. GG get gud scrub, see you in 3 million years when you have your own AI generated bioengineering.
Ok but mosquitoes historically are the #1 killers of humans, by an order of magnitude
Homo sapien: am I a joke to you?
According to google, yeah. Mosquito-borne diseases are responsible for 52 billion deaths. I was extremely surprised myself.
I’m pretty sure over history mosquitoes have killed far more people than people have.
Probably. But it’s also a bit of a difficult question to compare the two.
One prominent estimate is that about half of all humans who have ever lived died from mosquito-related illness, about 50 billion of the 100 billion humans who have ever lived.
For humans, it’s estimated that about 3-4% of paleolithic humans died from violence at the hands of another person, and that number may have risen to about 12% during medieval history, before plummetting in the modern age.
But that’s the comparison of direct violence versus illness. Humans have a strong capacity to indirectly cause death, including by starvation, illness, indirect trauma. How do we count deaths from being intentionally starved as part of a siege? Or biological weapons, including the time the Nazis intentionally flooded Italian marshes to increase malaria? Do we double count those as both human and mosquito deaths?
And then there’s unintentional deaths, caused by indifference or recklessness or negligence. Humans have caused famines, floods, fires, etc.
So yeah, mosquitoes probably win. But don’t sleep on humans. And remember that the count is still going on, and humans can theoretically take the lead in the future.
Who knew this whole time I was team mossie
Right, but consider:
Fuck them bugs
Hey, most bugs are cool and an important part of their ecosystem.
Mosquitoes tho ? Yeah, fuck them.
as much as i’d love to agree with that-
mosquitos are pollinators and an important food source for quite a few animals. Our eco system would not be fine if we got rid of them
Iirc the pollinators aren’t the bloodsuckers.
Bees are pollinators because they go to flowers and collect and move pollen.
Mosquitoes don’t have time to hang out in flowers because they’re busy screaming in your ear at 2 AM.
The largest type of mosquito in the Americas is an invasive species. There would be no harm done wiping them out.
That… That is a price I am willing to accept.
Total mutual destruction is the only way™
Ironclad reasoning. Flawless execution. Give this person a doctorate
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.
It’s a nice idea. But I wonder what the long term ramifications might be. What ripple effects might happen that we can’t see today that end up being problems in the future.
Human history is littered with such problems.
There have been extensive studies done on the topic already, the planet does not need mosquitos.
https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/what-if/what-if-mosquitoes-went-extinct.htm
https://www.nicd.ac.za/what-would-happen-if-all-the-mosquitoes-in-the-world-disappeared/
While some species may benefit from the absence of mosquitoes, others could face ecological disruptions due to changes in food webs.
However, eliminating mosquitoes entirely could also have unforeseen consequences, highlighting the importance of careful consideration and scientific research.
Other people have asked the same question you have, Niko, and scientists think that removing every single mosquito from the world wouldn’t have a bad overall effect on the environment. But none of us are sure what will happen to small ecosystems and whether these would be better off without mosquitoes.
The science is not really settled yet.
There are non-biting mosquitoes. Those would just fill the same ecological niche.
Yes I know. And maybe those studies are fully correct. I certainly have no way to cross check them. So you and I must take them at face value.
But even science will tell you that you should have at least some skepticism of such studies. Because it always seems like we miss some tiny important detail that only reveals it’s self later as we refine our knowledge on a subject.
I am all for eradicating the mosquito pest but there is no way a study is going to cover all possible impacts of removing them from existence. Anyone claiming to do so is just drunk on hubris.
The amount of ecologically horrifying acts that our species has already done, I’d be willing to add “got rid of mosquitos” to the pile.
