I heard the founder of Esalen on NPR today. He said we are prepared for the expected results; but never ready for the unexpected ones. His point of reference was science and the euphroria surrounding new discoveries, ie. nuclear power when it first became and no one had thought of the unexpected effects, i.e. halflife of 24,000 years, plant accidents like Chernoybl, etc. And, as he pointed out, here we are mucking about with genetic engineering having no idea what the unexpected results might be.