[26fingies]

You know what would be fun? If we could see where all of our ancestors were from…

- Police arrest my cousin for getting a paper cut during a home robbery

- Hackers sell my DNA on the internet

- Drugmakers make new and exciting opiates that are especially addictive for me alone

[hirvi74]

> You know what would be fun? If we could see where all of our ancestors were from

That is the part I could never understand. Maybe I have jumped to too many conclusions in my past.

So, you send your DNA and your results say you are 25% Irish or whatever broad "Northwestern European" category you are lumped into.

Okay, cool. . . But that does really make you "Irish" like someone that was born and raised in Ireland? Someone who grew up immersed in the culture, history, languages, etc.? Go tell someone from Ireland that you took a DNA test and that you are part Irish. I guarantee they would not care, probably hear it all the time from Americans, and would not think of you as one of them.

Another aspect about ancestry that has always bothered me is that I feel like it's a socially acceptable version of Nationalism-lite/Racism-lite.

"I am proud to be of Italian descent!"

Why? Do you think Italians are better than other people? You didn't do anything to earn your heritage, and sure, Italians -- like all cultures -- have made wonderful contributions to humanity, but those contributions were more than likely due to their culture and resources vs. the DNA in their cells.

"Wow! I two of my grandparents from 5 generations ago were German"

Cool, except Germany was only established in 1867, so they probably were Germanic people, but not "German" like one thinks. After all, countries are just lines on a map.

Lastly, aren't all people with European ancestry related by at least one common ancestor if you go back like 500-1000 years? I think if you go back like 2000 years or something, everyone on Earth shares at least one common ancestor. So, regardless of what the DNA tests say about your ancestor 4x generations back or however far back they go, we're all related anyway, and maybe we should start acting like that towards one another.

Seriously, what's the appeal to these tests? I can understand health information slightly more, but couldn't a hospital do that for you?

[RocketOne]

I'd go all in on the most nefarious - hacked data could be used to design a virus that only kills people with one particular genetic trait.

I'm pretty sure there's an uber dystopian horror movie in there somewhere.

[Centigonal]

There's a dystopian sci-fi tactical espionage action game (from 1998!) that features exactly this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTjI2LV0Tus&t=56

[heavyset_go]

This isn't even dystopian sci-fi, nations already investigate bioweapons that are designed to target only certain racial groups.

[alistairSH]

The Silo series of books was based around a similar plot device.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silo_(series)

[maxerickson]

Preventing a database from existing isn't gonna stop people with that capability. If they can make the targeted virus, they can forcefully obtain enough genetic samples from their targets to determine the information they need to do so.

The idea that a small technical road block will protect society from horrors is misguided.

Like it wasn't great for people that were identified in government registers as being in groups that the Nazis targeted, but they would have made up targets just the same of there were no government registers.

[fred_is_fred]

How difficult would it be with 2023 technology to produce DNA trace evidence for someone else given the sequenced information in these systems? Is there enough information there to do that, and if so, what are the technology hurdles?

[jacquesm]

23andMe has - fortunately, and to the best of my knowledge - not done any whole genome sequencing, they have made 'prints' ('Genotypes') that can be used to identify a person, but can't be used to re-sequence the DNA. That said: they do have your samples and there is a chance that they have made full sequences of select samples. But whole genome sequencing is still expensive enough that they would not be able to do this today. But given a few years advances in readers and someone with access to the samples could re-run all of them and obtain full sequences for their whole sample inventory.

[Obscurity4340]

I wish more people did this. Examples rule