Thalidomide wasn’t a failure of chemistry, but of medicine.
CFCs were an amazing breakthrough as they stopped people getting gassed by their refrigerator and killed (ammonia was used before). Once a problem was identified then changes were made. Similar with asbestos (not actually chemistry), leaded fuel and DDT.
As for the others you have concentrated on the tiny percentage of bad outcomes rather then the millions of positive. Chemistry has been such an overwhelming good over the last 200 years that it takes a very special mind to see it in such a negative light.
Unnecessary ad hominem with the 'special mind' but I will try to bring it back to the actual discussion point.
All the points I mentioned were massive breakthroughs and improvements in their primary application. The point is they had massively wide scale secondary effects which Humans at the time were unable to predict.
You say a small percentage of outcomes but many of those small percentage of occurences have had a negative effect on the whole of Humanity and even a Planetary negative effect. Just because the are few applications it doesn't make their magnitude small.
The original argument from GGP was that we as a species have failed to forecast these secondary effects on Chemical compounds which are theoretically less complex systems than Biological ones (by simpler I don't mean with less merit).
If we fail to predict theses effects on a Chemical level, it follows that the claim that we can confidently make such changes on a Biological system without secondary effects is very weak.
In my comment I was not arguing that the last 3 centuries of Chemistry are a failure or that we should stop developing, I am providing supporting evidence that even a 'simple' field as Chemistry is already vastly more complex than we can currently predict, it follows that changes to a more complex Biological field will very likely introduce more complex secondary effects which we once again will fail to predict.
I find it rather ironic that someone with the handle “DoingIsLearning” is arguing against doing new things.
Everything we do that is new has risks. History has shown us that the benefits of innovation far outweighs the costs. This does not mean progress comes with no downsides, but that the good is vastly better than the bad.
Many people seem so scared now of the possible risks that they are afraid to do anything really new. Living is risky, progress is risky, and not doing is even more risky.
> I find it rather ironic that someone with the handle “DoingIsLearning” is arguing against doing new things
(On top of trying to twist my words) I think this is where we diverge, I am not arguing.
I really mean this in a non snarky way, you should check the guidelines section 'In Comments' [0]. There is nothing wrong with pushing arguments like this, they just don't contribute anything to anybody else reading this.
If you want this kind of polarizing discussion, Twitter is probably a better platform.
CFCs were an amazing breakthrough as they stopped people getting gassed by their refrigerator and killed (ammonia was used before). Once a problem was identified then changes were made. Similar with asbestos (not actually chemistry), leaded fuel and DDT.
As for the others you have concentrated on the tiny percentage of bad outcomes rather then the millions of positive. Chemistry has been such an overwhelming good over the last 200 years that it takes a very special mind to see it in such a negative light.