Friday, January 03, 2003

Why are people so afraid of cloning? I have a few ideas on that (surprise, contain your enthusiasm please).

Firstly there is an inherent superstitious fear of the unknown, which is enforced by most people's idea of a uniqe soul that we all have. If something is created in a lab that is genetically us, would that mean we have no soul, or would we share a soul. If the clone and the cloned exist simultaneously, without any lessening or sharing of soul power does this disprove religious ideas?

Secondly there is the science-fictionialization of cloning. We have Captain Kirk put naked in a machine on one side and a slab of silly-putty on the other, spin like a mad bastard and out come two shiny naked Shatner's, both identical, but one decidedly more evil than the other. Captain Kirk is split in half by the transporter, splitting his spirit, one weak and ineffectual, the other strong and evil. Then there are the clones in Star Wars. The word clone has a strong negative connotation in the realm of popular fiction.

And what about the inhumanity of it all, would the value of human life lesson if we were able to just clone more people? Would traits be bred out of existance, or races, would the world become as in the film Gattica? It is well established in Star Trek that clones degrade the more generations that they go through.

You know what the reasons above are, by and large?

Bullshit.

What people forget when the get all bloody-minded about this issue is that cloned humans are still that, human. They are babies, no one has perfected that rapid growth thing from sci-fi, and even if they did that's still at least five years down the road, plenty of time to prepare.

There is a tremendous amount of good that could come out of this science. Personally I think that if they can figure out how to clone an entire person, what's to stop them from cloning you a heart if you need one, granted you'd have to wait a few years for it to mature. Or perhaps they could find a donor organ base much like o-type blood that would palatable to more people. Think about that, new limbs could be grown. This is where the science could go. Is this playing God? Yes it is, but we play God each and every second of our lives with every decision that we make, we change the universe a little at a time.

I heard a quote to the effect that if people are against cloning then they are against science in general. I think that is very accurate, and many people are against science. It scares them. "Scientists" might figure something out that upsets their fragile little superstitions. "Scientists" might "prove" them wrong.

Could this science be used for malicious intent? Yes it could. The afore mentioned genetic shenanigans of breeding races out could happen, but even if people were cloned against their will, what of it? It's a baby that looks like you. It'll grow up to be a person that may or may not be like you because of it's environment. Who are we kidding, no one's going to clone you anyway, so stop your bitchin.

But the real question is, what if they clone Hitler or Stalin or Ross Perot, imagine the evil possibilites in the world in twenty or thirty years we could have an evil army of Hitler clones rushing across the free world punishing and killing all God-Fearing Americans! We must prepare an army of Cary Grants and G.W.'s to stand in their way, we must start now, the commie-nazis might already have their army in diapers, or KINDERGARTEN! Urge your senator to start the clone army project now before it's too late!

Sorry got a little sidetracked and paranoid there, must be all the microwave radiation being beamed into my brain from the government.

In conclusion: Send in the clones (nothing like a good, over-used pun).

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