[OT] Claim of first clone birth

[Dr Midnight]

I'd rather transfer my brain to a DIFFERENT body, thanks. Who wouldn't want to try something different? Sure, clone me up a nice ab-flex body and scoop out that head. I'll be by to dump my skull-contents within the hour. Do you take bad checks?

 

[WayneLigon]

And have you read the cult's reason to clone?

Can you imagine....children as nothing more than "replacement bodies"?

I do , bring it on. Man, I wish I'd been able to grasp chemistry and mathmatics. I'd already be trying to do something like that by now. Dang it, I want my off-the-shelf transplants, clone farming, replacement bodies and all the rest.

Too bad that they're probably just doing it as a stunt to drum up publicity. Unless they've truly made a massive breakthrough in the science of cloning, they'd have had to go through hundreds of abortive tries, just like the creators of Dolly, etc, had to. Not quite there, yet, but hopefully we'll figure that out in a few years.

 

[WayneLigon]

I'd rather transfer my brain to a DIFFERENT body, thanks. Who wouldn't want to try something different? Sure, clone me up a nice ab-flex body and scoop out that head. I'll be by to dump my skull-contents within the hour. Do you take bad checks?

I think by the time we get to brain transplants, (or better yet, braintaping), we'll be able to do that. Yep, that's what I would want, definately. Or just refine the body I have now, to some degree. Fix the metabolism, change the eyes, reprogram a few other things.

 

[Mark]

It's sounding more and more like a SF novel. In fact, I can think of a short story by Orson Scott Card, called Fat Farm, I think, that's about transplanting the personality into a clone.

Spoilers (Highlight to read)

Allan Cole and Chris Bunch use this device in Empire's End. It is how the corrupt emperor manages his logevity.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I'd rather transfer my brain to a DIFFERENT body, thanks. Who wouldn't want to try something different? Sure, clone me up a nice ab-flex body and scoop out that head.

Doooooood! Come on, you can do better than that.

If you're up for a weekend bender in Carmen Electra's body, somebody would probably float you the cash.


Wulf

 

[Lizard]

Re: Hmm...

And that is the real stickler. Let's say I'm a multi-billion dollar corporation and I make a clone. Does that mean I now own that clone?

"Let's say I'm a billionaire, and I pay a woman to bear my child. Do I own that child?"

Of course not. The question is ridiculous.

You do not 'make' a clone, any more than you 'make' any other kind of baby. There was an artificial aid to conception? Guess what, countless babies are born each year due to fertility drugs (an artificial aid to conception) and several hundred are born due to in-vitro fertilization (ditto). No one (sane) claims these babies are somehow not normal, rights-possessing human beings.

It's really disturbing to me how many people "worry" about cloning who don't seem to really UNDERSTAND it. It's nothing to be fretting about, other than the 'squick factor' which accompanies any new technology.

 

[Dr Midnight]

Oh, man, here's my body modification christmas list-

-Jackie Chan reflexes
-Retractable claws
-Ripped torso and chiseled shizzy all throughout
-Bio-rubbersteel leg muscle implants, allowing for speeds up to 40 mph and twenty-foot jumps
-Nipple removal (who needs 'em?)
-1 TB "grey drive" in skull for permanent, crystal-clear memory
-telescopic 20/20 eyes. Laser beams a big plus.
-Spider-man style finger/foot hairs for maximum wall adhesion. Yes.
-Permanent fresh breath glands, hidden beneath the tongue
-color-morph skin, to blend into surroundings (or just turn purple)

Not all of these are really possible with DNA jiggerypokery, but what the hell, it's MY imaginary list.

 

[Dr Midnight]

If you're up for a weekend bender in Carmen Electra's body, somebody would probably float you the cash.

Ewwww...

Well, if we're talking about THAT, why do we need someone to be "in" the body? I mean, if cloning becomes accessible, no one need worry about attracting the perfect mate. Just order one. He/she will be bred to your specifications. He/she will be very attracted to you, will love you, never stray... Kinda like CHERRY 2000 or A.I., but you can actually have a child with "it", and no one's to say his/her affection isn't genuine.

People with natural spouses will be assumed to have lacked the money to just buy one.

Scary, sure, but hell... money can buy you happiness.

 

[Lizard]

Ewwww...

Well, if we're talking about THAT, why do we need someone to be "in" the body? I mean, if cloning becomes accessible, no one need worry about attracting the perfect mate. Just order one. He/she will be bred to your specifications. He/she will be very attracted to you, will love you, never stray... Kinda like CHERRY 2000 or A.I., but you can actually have a child with "it", and no one's to say his/her affection isn't genuine.

People with natural spouses will be assumed to have lacked the money to just buy one.

Scary, sure, but hell... money can buy you happiness.

You seem to be confusing 'cloning' with 'building androids' or 'really, really advanced (and possibly not possible) genetic engineering'.

If you 'order' a clone:
a)You'll need to wait 18 years. (14 in Alabama)
b)You'll probably get what you wanted in terms of hair and eye color, but that's about it. Personality is totally up in the air. You might as well just pay a couple who have the physical features you find attractive to have a child and try to get the resulting offspring to marry you when it becomes of eligible age.

A clone is just a time-delayed identical twin. It's not 'programmable', any more than any other human being is. (That is, you can TRY to raise it according to your desires, but you're as likely to succeed as you are with a child conceived by any other means, which is to say, not very.)

Frankly, I think it's more likely we'll just plug into VR worlds and have AIs be our 'perfect mates'. Cheaper, more practical, less risk of failure, and FASTER. A decent 'artificial personality' could probably be 'grown' in weeks or days, having an entire 'simulated life', complete with memories, anecdotes, quirks, etc, but controlled by the software. If done right, it would never know it was an AI or that it was living in a virtual world.

For all you know, you are...

 

[Dr Midnight]

Thank you very much for straightening me out on that.

*cough*