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Gattaca - it is no longer science fiction.
Teala
Member RarePosts: 7,627
Do we humans really wish to go in this direction? Seriously. Think deeply about this. Do we really want to mess with the genetics of our own species to the point that we're able to make super beings? What happens once there is enough of those super beings in existance - they might just say..."Hey, we are so much better than all of you, you're not worth having around any more."
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we don't need super beings for humans to say this already.
the simple fact is that the majority of people with a really good talent for something deal with the fact that they are social creatures and it is great having people around, even if everyone else can't do the cool things that they can.
so, no i don't worry, i just work towards making new technologies a reality. Extending peoples life times, curing disease and improving quality of life for more people far out weigh any worries that some people will use those technologies for evil.
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!
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I ask for so little. Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave.
More like Brave New World. Actually I wrote a Swedish text about how we're basically recreating the world in Brave New World, especially by being able to make an infinite amount of exactly alike humans which pretty much is what the world in Brave New World is built around. Also kind of sad that Heroes doesn't take up gene modification and beliefs that your superpowers make you better than others.
Yeah I'm all for it. I love technology and I love how humans have the inherent need to continually advance and discover new things. Whether we use this new technology for good or bad is the ULTIMATE question, no one can answer this. What I hate is the stunting of technology such as Genetic Engineering, because either way it's going to be discovered.
O_o o_O
Gattaca? See what is this?
-In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on Aug/13/08-
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RISING DRAGOON ~AION US ONLINE LEGION for Elyos
It's a sci-fi movie from 1997
Gattaca
And if you were given the opportunity to make sure your daughter could never contract breast cancer; you wouldn't do it? This before birth treatment would be completely free, available to all mothers and could in affect erradicate breast cancer in women (and men) forever.
Would you still object?
How about blindness, MS, AZ, what if we could simply change white blood sells to be inherently resistant to HIV, HEP a/b/c, heart disease and blood diseases. I've seen people die of these, haven't you?
If genetic sciences could get rid of those human frailties, would you still object?
How about depression, suicidal tendencies, babies born with addictions to heroin, cocain, meth. What if you could make certain, with the help of genetic sciences, that these medical issues are cared for, that those brain singnals that are prone to suicide, irrational thought and delusion are firing on all the right frequencies.
Do we need to make super humans? No but then again, I suppose that depends on your definition of super human. Is it a version of our species that is able to resist the most common forms of viruses, bacteria and bugs natural to our planet? Well maybe but when so many of these things can so easily kill us, isn't that also just good sense?
And what about moving forward. We know that our planet has a limited time frame in the universe, the human species and its home, in affect, has been born with an expiry date. The only possible way to live through any future catastrophic event would be to reach into space and find either secondary housing or gain the ability to live in space.
We know with absolute certainty, that the human body cannot handle the environment of space as we are built right now. With its radiation, lack of gravity and so on we're simply not developed that handle space over long period of time. Well, with genetic culturing we could possibly fix this.
In essence, frakking around with our genetic makeup might not even be an option in the years to come.
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I was going to post pretty much exactly what you said, but you beat me to it. Also, gotta love BSG
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I was going to post pretty much exactly what you said, but you beat me to it. Also, gotta love BSG
Hey shae & Byrd, what are you going to tell your baby girl when all the other kids have brain implants, but you can't afford the new high power model for your kids?
If you think something that can be used for competitive advantage is going to be just handed out on street corners for everyone, think again.
"If you can't out wit them, report them till they're banned!"- PopinJ'
Super Beings? Probably not, creating that kind of a caste imbalance would indeed have huge social repercussions, even if the mentioned genocidal action never takes place.
If on the other hand we take modification in small steps from generation to generation (a smart thing to do regardless), the benefits to mankind as a whole are virtually limitless. Our bodies are flawed in so many different ways it is absolutely rediculous.
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Hemingway
You need to take the long view of things like this.
Eugenics is not a new question. We have gone through periods in history where every powerful nation, including the United States and most of western Europe, decided that eugenics was a perfectly normal course of action to follow. The governments decided, and people widely agreed, that those deemed unfit should not be allowed to procreate and those deemed gifted should be encouraged. As time passed, though, this idea fell out of favor.
Yes, the technology we have at our disposal today may offer us far more "advanced" methods of achieving the above goals, but I don't think the human perception of this kind of tampering has fundamentally changed. There will be periods where it comes into favor, typically after the birth of new technologies, and there will similarly be periods where it falls out of favor, usually following an era of reflection when the initial lure of said technologies wears off.