Genetic testing

Having casually followed the quantified self movement and admitting a general tendency common for engineers to be interested in measuring stuff, I decided to pull the trigger and order a laboratory tube for my saliva from 23andMe. Even despite the hight shipping and handling costs to Finland. Maybe more on that later, but one interesting thing arose already after talking about genetic testing and sequencing of DNA with various colleagues and friends: people, at least in my circle of acquaintances, seem to be very much against these types of things. Which is interesting, because on average the data set consists of relatively highly educated and seemingly intelligent people.

The most common argument, based on limited empirical evidence, appears to be that people do not want to know about potential genetic diseases. Fair enough, I suppose, but personally I don't think there can be too much harm in at least having a cursory overview of what the most common pitfalls may be. At least then I'll know which research areas to donate money to, if nothing else. But regardless, the probabilities are there whether or not I sequence a bit of DNA, and forewarned is forearmed. But I guess if a person is prone to anxiety, these things may cause elevated stress. Amusingly enough it seems that ingesting excess amounts of calories, avoiding any forms of exercise, etc., don't seem to cause stress. Who knows how to interpret all of this.

Anyway, I think there is a much more fundamental argument for giving some organic material for the researchers to sequence: for the first time in history we are getting to the point where genetic testing is becoming so cheap that theoretically everyone will soon have a chance for genetic testing. The possibilities that these could provide for scientific research are huge, and in a sense I perceive this to be one of the biggest drivers for why I should take part in these types of exercises: what I get out of these may be, at least for now, of limited significance, but contributing to what has a very high probability of being a significant breakthrough for humanity and what will very likely down the road improve life for all, I think I just have to do it.

Oh, and in 23andMe's case they offer nifty APIs against which to write code. Who could resist that.