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threeplusfireThe story about Clonaid and the claim of the first clone birth are all over the wires this morning. Didn't we all read enough science fiction stories to know that cloning never ends in happiness? I read "Nine Lives" again yesterday, and it is still a chilling thought.
It's a strange day when I can't even retreat into my sci-fi collection for respite from the world. Back to the wizards I suppose. Even if they do keep me up til odd hours before dawn, whispering.
It's a strange day when I can't even retreat into my sci-fi collection for respite from the world. Back to the wizards I suppose. Even if they do keep me up til odd hours before dawn, whispering.
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Not of this world
Date: 2002-12-27 09:30 am (UTC)to copy creation? Was I asleep or something?
The truly creepy part is that the people who
supposely funded this project believed that
humans were created by extraterrestials.
I simply do not trust man with such a task
Date: 2002-12-27 09:33 am (UTC)Re: I simply do not trust man with such a task
Date: 2002-12-27 09:37 am (UTC)time to flee to Mars
Date: 2002-12-27 09:45 am (UTC)Re: time to flee to Mars
Date: 2002-12-27 10:16 am (UTC)Mars needs us. I've already started packing.
Re: time to flee to Mars
Date: 2002-12-27 10:39 am (UTC)seems to think that colonization there might not be too
much better
Re: time to flee to Mars
Date: 2002-12-27 11:01 am (UTC)Re: time to flee to Mars
Date: 2002-12-27 12:33 pm (UTC)Re: time to flee to Mars
Date: 2002-12-27 12:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-12-27 11:44 am (UTC)The door is open; I say bring on the clones.
Re:
Date: 2002-12-27 12:09 pm (UTC)To be human is to reach. As amazing and fantastic as that is, it is still a bit scary.
no subject
Date: 2002-12-27 01:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-12-27 02:08 pm (UTC)I agree, entirely.
But they came at it from two (three, actually) different motivations.
The couple wanted a baby of their own.
The scientists wanted to make a breakthrough, be seen as pioneers, "the first" at whatever was involved.
And then there's the business side of it all. Profit.
Re:
Date: 2002-12-27 02:26 pm (UTC)Maybe it's not all bad
Date: 2002-12-27 01:53 pm (UTC)It may not be your bag but Robert Heinlein forsaw great medical advances through cloning in part. See The Cat Who Could Walk Through Walls, Number of the Beast and others in the Lazarus Long series.
Re: Maybe it's not all bad
Date: 2002-12-27 01:55 pm (UTC)Re: Maybe it's not all bad
Date: 2002-12-27 02:39 pm (UTC)Re: Maybe it's not all bad
Date: 2002-12-27 02:37 pm (UTC)We would be very lucky, I think, to develop such things. The possibilities of tissue regeneration, new organs, longer lives... it's amazing. But I wonder if prolonging our lives will only lead to greater miseries for humanity as a whole. Cloning does not contribute to the overall evolution of the species, simply the survival of a few.
Re: Maybe it's not all bad
Date: 2002-12-30 12:32 pm (UTC)Re: Maybe it's not all bad
Date: 2002-12-30 12:40 pm (UTC)Re: Maybe it's not all bad
Date: 2002-12-30 12:54 pm (UTC)I don't think we should ever stop researching, exploring, learning but we should have the ethics to realize that doing something just because we can is not the wisest thing. And I certainly don't think the bunch of folks that are claiming this advance would recognize ethics even if it came down in a spaceship and probed them all night long.
Re: Maybe it's not all bad
Date: 2002-12-30 01:13 pm (UTC)Ahh. Ethics. A rare and precious commodity in this world, to be sure. Of all the sects to do something to change the world, I surely would not have picked them.
Re: Maybe it's not all bad
Date: 2002-12-30 01:26 pm (UTC)Of all the sects to do something to change the world, I surely would not have picked them.
Unfortunately, radicals change the world all the time and not neccessarily for the better.
Re: Maybe it's not all bad
Date: 2002-12-30 01:37 pm (UTC)Well, of course the radicals are always the ones to hare off and do the unexpected. But for something like this, I just want someone with better style. When I dreamed of my sci-fi future as a child, it was always so beautiful and strange. No men with puffy white sleeves. ;)
Re: Maybe it's not all bad
Date: 2002-12-30 02:34 pm (UTC)Re: Maybe it's not all bad
Date: 2002-12-30 02:42 pm (UTC)Re: Maybe it's not all bad
Date: 2003-01-05 02:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-12-27 02:11 pm (UTC)I don't carry any religious arguments against cloning. But overall.... I'm just saddened by this.
It's so much like the military throwing food overboard before getting into port where they'll restock. These people couldn't adopt?
For the people's sake, I hope the child grows up healthy and hearty.
For the rest of the world's sake, I hope there's a lot of problems.
I can't reconcile those two hopes.
Re:
Date: 2002-12-27 02:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-12-27 04:03 pm (UTC)This does open up some interesting discussion, now doesn't it? Ultimately, the very act of having a child naturally is the most self-centered thing anyone can do. Of course, the instant the child is born, the self-centered ideal morphs rather quickly into a life of utter selflessness. Even Madonna was, for a moment in time, struck with the way her baby commanded away her own focus on herself and forced it onto a helpless human.
That said, and to continue what I was leading to above, the conceiving of a child is an act of total selfishness--the drive to carry on one's own name, or bloodline, or stunning good looks, or whatever. Psychologically, most people who choose to have children do so to create a connection to themselves that stretches to the future; ie, to taste immortality. It may not be romantic, but it is very true. Adopting does nothing to satiate that desire; adoption is driven by a need to give back to society, not to oneself.
"Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang"
Date: 2002-12-27 03:20 pm (UTC)It's a strange day when I can't even retreat into my sci-fi collection for respite from the world.
Sometimes I wonder if the bad things in the world are getting a boost because people are trying to retreat into sci-fi rather than trying to change the way the world is going...
Re: "Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang"
Date: 2002-12-27 03:45 pm (UTC)I don't support complete escapism, for the record. But I find it very trying and not at all good for my mental health to slog through the madness without some small moment of dream.
Slog On!
Date: 2002-12-27 03:50 pm (UTC)See more here:http://revolutionsf.com/article/953.html
Re: Slog On!
Date: 2002-12-27 04:03 pm (UTC)I feel a great unease because I do not know what I honestly believe in, here. Because I do not see answers. I believe, though, that education and teaching people to think critically is necessary. I hope to teach one day, to be the sort of figure one or two teachers were for me.
I think sometimes it might be my greatest failure, this lack of faith in any cause or idea.
Interesting article. I have long been a fan of Moorcock's work.
Who Can Deny...?
Date: 2002-12-27 04:10 pm (UTC)Re: Who Can Deny...?
Date: 2002-12-27 04:29 pm (UTC)Connections
Date: 2002-12-27 04:33 pm (UTC)I wish I could say that the sci-fi and fantasy fans created some sort of "counter-culture", or represented some sort of internal dissent, but I no longer think that's true.
All I ask is that people look at these questions.
Re: Connections
Date: 2002-12-27 04:45 pm (UTC)Burger Kings
Date: 2002-12-27 04:51 pm (UTC)