Neil deGrasse Tyson Tells GMO Critics to "Chill Out"

[mike_c]

44. of course they do-- ALL genes store information about an organism's past....

That is what genes do. All genes. There is nothing that distinguishes "GMO genes" from any other genes. All genes are information storage about how organisms solved past phenotypic challenges.

Are you describing deleterious alleles? Remember the distinction between "genes" and "alleles." Genes are information storage about past challenges, alleles are the specific transcript of that information and might vary from one individual to another, even though all individuals posses the genes in which they occur. I suppose one could insert sufficient copies of a deleterious allele into another organism to express a maladaptive phenotype, but why? Certainly that isn't the goal of genetic engineering generally. And it's also worth noting that the same general problem exists for selective breeders-- if I understand your comment correctly, you've described one outcome that selective breeding works to avoid. Genetic engineering works to avoid it to-- it's senseless.