In a glimpse of the future, there are now companies who use your DNA to come up with what they call your “optimal” way to get high. This is based on the unique properties of different strains, the ratios of THC, CBD, and terpenes.
THC is the psychoactive component of cannabis, CBD has been linked to a reduction in pain and inflammation, and terpenes are what give different strains their distinctive smell and flavor.
The companies get your DNA from a cheek swab and use the information to figure out how different components of cannabis will be processed by your body.
Cannabis is currently a schedule 1 drug, along with heroine, meaning it’s highly addictive. For reference, cocaine is a schedule 2. What this means is that it’s hard for scientists to properly study the drug without jumping through mountains of paperwork. This difficulty could result in a lack of quality from the recommendations.
In my opinion this could only work if people are opting for the service in large numbers. With a large enough sample size, the correlations would increase in their strength and provide more accuracy for prospective users.
Imagine if this service was offered for everything, from optimal time to go to bed to the best way to eat. Of course, there are companies who already claim to infer these recommendations from the data present in a person’s DNA but it would be more effective it there was a large adoption of the technology and results were based on the evidence found from a large sample size. With some minimal guidance from initial guesses, supported by a large group of users, recommendations could be optimized based on not only DNA but also lifestyle factors.
This is where AI comes in. There’s no way humans can crunch the data required but an AI could search through the data to come up with the best recommendations.
This implies a large adoption of DNA sequencing, using a central service. As terrifying as it is, this is where a surveillance state could actually be of use. The possibilities of it turning out poorly for anyone who opts out could be fodder for a new book/series, but for now the thought that there’s an “optimal” anything out there, based on my DNA, makes me think it might be worth it, even if it’s something as trivial as what’s the best way to get high.
