Because we can - does that mean we should?

[Mr Wolf]

Maybe in England things filter down more quickly. Here in the US, it takes a bit of time. I could probably get medical treatment if I needed it, but something tells me that I'd be turned away from the very best oncologists because I am uninsured.

lol i will keep a barge pole's distance from this end of the conversation! On topic anyway, am all in favour. To me it sounds like there are quite a lot of potential gains. As far as potential downsides, there maybe some but i doubt they will be as dramatic as some suggested here. If however there is a zombie apocalypse... canadian scientists have already got that covered

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8206280.stm

[Iron Horse]

This kind of research should definitely exist. And BTW, keeping 'sick' people alive and able to reproduce doesn't just make getting 'bad' genomes out of the pool impossible. It also makes the pool bigger, thus decreasing the effects of inbreeding.
Of course there are risks in this sort of research. But I think that human evolution is at least partially technologic, so, in a way, we stop evolving if we stop scientific research.
It's quite silly to say that there WILL be 'zombies'. Come on, bacteria or viruses aren't able to take over human bodies so completely that they could make zombie people. And besides, bacteria/viruses can't even think. Of course there would prolly be some super bacteria and viruses, but there are those even now. And BTW, to my knowledge, pig flu is not one.

[sosomething]

Don't play innocent, since your thread started with a disclaimer. You know what can of worms you opened. So don't blame Matt. Eugenics, creationism, and evolution, are intertwined with this topic.

I'm not denying that there are ties. There's nothing wrong with acknowledging them. I'm just trying to avoid anyone using those associations as a springboard to launch into any kind of pro/con/this/that diatribe that might run the risk of my thread getting locked.

I take responsibility for starting the thread - what other people post in it is another matter.

But back to the discussion...

Navigating our way through it is best seen from the scientific angle, with a close eye on preventing corruption, which is inherent, and unavoidable.....so since we have no control over it, you might as well sit back and enjoy watching us do what we do as humans. We'll inevitably forge ahead with the dollar signs in front of us, till all the resources are used up, and we've created robots and artificial life. The cat's out of the bag. Once we think it, it becomes a reality. There's no stopping it.

So....make some money, make your mark, and enjoy our ride toward ultimate consumption/destruction, which will probably happen beyond our lifetime. No matter what, your great grandchildren will bear the brunt. Too bad for them.....maybe they'll live in the age of the science fiction movies....who knows?
What are you going to do to stop that circling toward the drain? Nothing. We're an evolved mammal which consumes resources, and it's not going to stop, till there's no more rescources and no more ways of keeping humans alive for 150 years. We're the only little creature in the solar system that exists like this, so our little 5 million year experience will be a profound and interesting one.

I'm not so sure about that.

Society is vast and difficult to control, but I think there still exists such a thing as social conscience. The perceptions of many can be (and often are) molded by few. Just because we realize that, as modern man, we have the power to do a thing does not fate us to do it.

Our greatest boon as a species is reason, and while reasoning and logic are most often used to benefit one's own interests, there are moments - both pivotal moments in history and small moments in each of our everyday lives - where that reason is used with an eye toward the greater good.

Your world view is so bleak that I'm struggling with the urge to take a polarized stance to argue it, but just don't have the energy. Suffice to say accountability isn't dead - it's just missing - but if everyone shared your point of view, we'd never find it.

[Gearjoneser]

Yeah, I admit I painted a pretty grim picture, which isn't necessarily my prediction - I do have some faith in social conscience.

But even people like Stephen Hawking predict that our own demise is likely to be our own doing. The world population isn't going down, but our resources are. Combine that with self engineered evolution, where we try to eliminate death and disease, and the population will grow even more....with more genetic defects.

And I'm not trying to take a polarizing stance in this argument either. I'm not even against research for the greater good. I'm for it, but I also hypothetically weigh in the consequences of doing things like prolonging the life of people who would then have a greater likelihood of passing those genes on. And also prolonging the life of the aged, for no other reason than greed.

Again, I'm not strongly against it, but rather throwing out reasons to be cautious, knowing that humans' number one motivator is greed.

I wonder if we'll ever see the day when the wealthiest can afford to buy a clone of themselves.......ok, now I'm going off on a sci fi tangent! LOL

[Iron Horse]

I wonder if we'll ever see the day when the wealthiest can afford to buy a clone of themselves.......ok, now I'm going off on a sci fi tangent! LOL

I can't see why this wouldn't be possible already. But WTH for would a rich man want a clone? To get killed and reeplaced by the clone? The working man would love one, he could skip every other work day (OTOH, he'd get ½ of the money, too)

[ImmortalSix]

[Kosh Naranek]

Related article from several years ago


OTOH, if artificial life forms can be created, perhaps every guy can engineer the perfect girl for him. I'll take Lisa in the movie Wierd Science.

Seriously, maybe this will end up being mother nature's way of solving the problem of global climate change, pollution, destruction of natural habitats and overpopulation by species homo sapiens.