Texas is going to continue to attact the best and brightest.

TX governor Greg Abbott is the new conservative face of TX politics.  Because of him, open carry is now the official law of the land.  Thank you, Gov. Greg Abbott.

But it doesn't stop there.  Have a quick look at his public goals which support his We the People vision. Yes, he wrote them down for all to see, unlike liberals whose promises are always only verbal.  Also, look at the areas of focus - they show that he is clearly looking at the the things that will matter going forward.  Notice the complete lack of promises and platitudes about jobs, the economy (which the government cannot control except to make worse by meddling), education or the other cornerstones of liberal political banter.  His main focus points are:

DNA Rights
Data collection on people
Political ethics reform (with main targets being financial kickbacks and the purchase of government influence) including campaign finance accounting

I have written several posts mass DNA collection such as this one which means that I think something is going on there which is more than meets the eye.  The fact that DNA rights is the first item in Abbott's reforms list suggests that my intuition was correct on this matter.   Folks, the next three big frontiers - those discovered but mostly unexplored countries are looming large: Robotics, AI and DNA engineering.  If we are smart we will not let these sneak up on us because they are each so powerful and scalable as to be able to cause immeasurable harm in a very short period of time.

On the DNA front specifically, there is untold value in mastering DNA.  Everything from immortality to super intelligence to super strength and agility to super size is on the table.  We are told over and over again that certain research is unethical, etc.  Only a flaming idiot thinks this means that governments the world over are not doing exactly these things.  If man ever gets something that can be used to advantage then I can assure you, it will be used.  Period.  Nobody has a trump card that is not eventually played.  It is not in the nature of mankind to show that kind of restraint.  All of this ethics and morality talk is just "Do as I say and not as I do because I'll get ahead faster without competition from YOU".

The recent DNA research is showing some very interesting and widely unexpected results.  I will call it layered evolution.  We all know that the human brain is composed of layers.  Way deep inside, the core, which is often called our "rat brain" or "reptile brain" lives.  Other discrete structures are literally layered on top of that.  It's very hierarchical in nature, not unlike a computer software stack.  You can read more about those layers here. 

What I have always found interesting about this architecture is the discrete boundaries between layers.  If pure evolution were responsible for what we have today then I would not expect such clear and discrete subsystems.   I would expect to see more of a monolithic mess.  But monolithic architectures do not scale very well.  Layered ones do.  Importantly, layered architectures imply intelligent design, not natural selection.

In a recent discovery it was shown that layered evolution are not limited to the brain.  This article reports that, "By changing the molecular structure of the DNA Protein rather than the DNA itself, scientists at Yale University succeeded in creating chicken embryos with broad, Velociraptor-like muzzles similar to their ancestors, in place of their modern beaks.".  Yes, I know that the initial picture is an artist's impression, not to be relied upon as a data source.

However, the article goes on to say, "After having spent time analysing and comparing the skeletons and individual bones of modern species of birds, extinct birds, bird-like dinosaurs, and distant reptilian relatives such as alligators and turtles, Bhullar and his team looked for genetic differences across the four groups.

“The researchers focused on two genes that help control the development of the middle of the face,” Choi reports. “The activity of these genes differed from that of reptiles early in embryonic development. They developed molecules that suppressed the activity of the proteins that these genes produced, which led to the embryos developing snouts that resembled their ancestral dinosaur state.”

By modifying the proteins that are produced by these particular genes – rather than modifying the genes themselves – the team was able to control the growth of the chickens’ beaks. Describing their experiment in the journal Evolution, they say that instead of growing regular beaks, the modified chicken embryos developed wide snouts, with a blunt, rounded end, like an Archaeopteryx’s, except with no teeth.

While they decided not to let them hatch, Bhullar told LiveScience that they were healthy enough to survive if they did. “They actually probably wouldn’t have done that badly if they did hatch,” said Bhullar. “Mostly, though, we were interested in the evolution of the beak, and not in hatching a ‘dino-chicken’ just for the sake of it.”

So they basically did a comparison of the DNA data across species which presented a likely trigger for the converting a more ancient design into the more modern design.  They inhibited this trigger and a layer of DNA modifications was removed thus reverting the chicks to the older model beak structure.

While the layered architecture revelation is interesting and thought provoking enough, the real reason why I bothered posting this in conjunction with DNA right is that our current DNA technology appears to make it possible to compare across DNA samples looking for genetic triggers.  Given this, it would only make sense to want to take DNA samples from a lot of people and then let the supercomputer begin to spit out the important control points. 

Once those running things have this data, how fairly do you think it will be shared?  Do you think you and I will see any benefit or will it be locked away for use by the elite?  I think I know what Gov. Abbott thinks given this is top of mind for him. 

Knowledge is power and Abbott is trying to make sure that small sectors of elite do not get a free pass in this regard.  This is anti-elitism (in fact, individual property rights are at the heart of all anti-elitist efforts) and over time people will recognize that Texas is a truly conservative state where the average citizen gets a better deal than in many other states.  This has been and I think will continue to be a huge draw for the Texas population and will attract the best and brightest work force.