the_dunk_tank

may not matter to people in a hundred years from now

Not now yes. But as this video explains beautifully, it might be possible, in some distant future. Ofc, it might not, though we won't know for another century, yet it is fun to speculate now.

e.g. the video starts off with:

Imagine you were alive back in the 1980's,

and were told that computers would soon take over everything:

from shopping, to dating, and the stock market,

that billions of people would be connected via a kind of web,

that you would own a handheld device, orders of magnitudes more powerful than supercomputers.

It would seem absurd, but then, all of it happened.

Science fiction became our reality, and we don't even think about it.

We're at a similar point today with genetic engineering.

Already I can envision things like taking out the tiniest portion of our liver, rewriting its genetic code, then transplanting our very own (modified) liver back into our bodies (after first growing a lot of cells, of the type that we selected for). Even if the liver only replaced some fraction of the natural cells that were previously there (I dunno... 10-50% maybe? I do not have an M.D. so it is mostly speculation), I think we would still have the new function that the new cells provide? e.g., even if 90% of the liver cells do NOT do the new chemical processing, if 10% DO, then that could be enough to make whatever that "function" is happen?

Or removing people's gallbladers could become a thing of the past, or even if you did that, you could maybe pop back in a new one? The latter is more generic stem cell stuff, not needing modification of any kind, genetic or otherwise, but now take it one step further and imagine that you inserted cells modified to produce a new chemical - a stronger digestive aid perhaps. You wouldn't need a whole LOT of cells to provide that gain-of-function, even just a little would alter the state from "chemical does not exist, at all" to "chemical now exists, in XYZ quantity".

And we haven't even BEGUN to dig into the microbiome: maybe we don't want to experiment with editing our own fully human DNA, but editing the bacterial DNA could have profound implications, especially for anything digestive-related.

Finally, while most diseases may not be fully genetic, some are, and in any case perhaps a genetic solution could be devised even if that was not the original cause? An example could be to implant a new organ that would permanently produce insulin, so so as to not require injections any longer - and if you could make that organ from the patient's very own cells, that would significantly reduce the chance of tissue rejection?

Or even with all the detail already, I still have yet to even so much as mention nanobots, lets say bacterial or viral ones. Tiny changes, to even a few cells, can have HUGE ramifications. See e.g. cancer, but what about making those kinds of changes work for rather than against us - e.g. by modifying bacteria or bacteriophages that have zero possibility of passing on those genetic changes to the human host, for safety? Heck, the insulin example is probably already possible now - we've been mass-producing insulin from bacteria since the 80s. There probably is some reason that we aren't seeing it - e.g. if bacteria in our small intestine were to produce insulin, could it get into our bloodstream that way or would it just become pooped out? Even if someone had to eat a yogurt once a week rather than receive insulin injections, many people might purchase such a product?

And from there it will only continue to grow... just as computers did, also having mostly started in the 80s. Check out the video - it's superb!:-D