“Are we concerned that that mouse now has a human consciousness when there have been mixtures of human cells that contribute broadly to an animal nervous system.
And you have a large fraction of the brain arising from the human stem cell?” he wonders.
Professor Saha cautions that scientists must properly take this into account even if he doesn’t think any of the current studies could be regarded as conscious.
However, scientists may be able to modify creatures in the future in ways other than mixing existing species.
Scientists can eliminate or add specific targeted genes by using gene editing techniques like CRISPR.
Researchers can produce animals with novel physical traits by simultaneously altering groups of targeted genes.
