Promethiel

That’s the goal.

Progress is trying to march in that direction. It’s just subtly (I.e, not something PopSci usually covers) one of the hardest scientific undertakings of our time.

I also don’t feel as though neither enough attention nor funding is being directed that way currently.

Yes. after it reaches a certain point of maturity. Gene editing hasn’t.

Ethics are a big hurdle, but I wouldn’t call it the biggest. Mengele was a conscienceless monster who played at pseudo science.

The biggest hurdle to gene editing is that it’s fucking hard. Even Mengele V2.0 with no morals and a stable of daily test subjects wouldn’t lead to a ‘mastery’ that lets you merely select for your changes to only include digesting lignin and cellulose.

Seriously. It’s really hard to even model within acceptable error margins, what the results of gene therapy will be. The potential for disastrous results also only goes up the more complex the interactions you’re trying to affect.

At current time, even some of the best recorded attempts which are decidedly positively quality of life altering (e.g. [emphasis mine] https://www.science.org/content/article/gene-editing-therapy-made-just-6-months-helps-baby-life-threatening-disease) still come with great caveats:

The boy, first treated in February at just 7 months old, still needs a special diet and medication; the experimental therapy alone isn’t enough to prevent a dangerous buildup of ammonia in his blood caused by a faulty gene for a key liver enzyme. Still, the swift development of a gene editor that appears to have repaired the defect in some of his liver cells is a landmark demonstration of a personalized approach that has tantalized rare disease researchers.

Meanwhile, even renowned institutions starting from best intentions, get it horribly wrong, because the interactions are just that hard to model (e.g. [emphasis mine] https://www.science.org/content/article/exclusive-death-girl-chinese-gene-editing-trial-was-never-made-public):

That vague language glossed over tragedy: Seven days after the girl’s medical team infused trillions of viruses carrying the recipe for the base editor into her spinal fluid, she died of a severe immune reaction linked to the therapy, Science and Retraction Watch can now reveal.

In a possible future, itself perhaps locked in to some other timeline, your dreams may be possible for your grandchildren and great-grandchildren. But today, they’re just as likely to get you dead.

Can’t we identify the genes responsible for their stomach formation

Absolutely.

and CRISPR them unto humans, theoretically giving them the same abilities?

Absolutely not.

CRISPR and related techniques are not magic. The interplay between gene presence and trait expression is absurdly more complicated than that. You cannot simply “edit in” entire biological adaptations, that’s not how it works.

The most likely scenario in such an attempt would simply be nothing. Other possibilities include: Autoimmune lifelong digestive system issues, and death, amongst many others.

Depends on if we’re talking peacefully buying them at the shop, or bartering for them in the ruins of civilization. It’s hard to tell for sure because there’s a bit of a multiplier effect in play when the Arctic seafloor starts heating up.

Also by no means is the Arctic the only big “threshold” around the corner.

If you ask me again tomorrow morning, maybe I’d have a more hopeful answer or platitude ready.

But this late at night? Smoke 'em if you got them. I personally already “un-quit”.