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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ColonelHardisson" data-source="post: 558332" data-attributes="member: 363">The operative phrase in this is "will probably become." While it is in the process of becoming unnecessary, that doesn't mean people will wait until it actually does. At least, that isn't consistent with the way humans act on Earth.I don't have any moral qualms about this either. I never indicated that I did.I'm not paralyzed by fear, and neither am I going to be blithely naive. So, do we need not argue the issue, because somehow or other these things won't come to pass? Why are brain transplants unlikely in the next several decades or the coming century? Work is being done on reconnecting the brain to severed spinal cords; how much of a leap is it beyond that to actual brain transplants, especially with a genetically identical donor body? Go back 60 or 70 years, and someone could easily say, in all seriousness - "I mean, *heart* transplants?" and label it as wild speculation on the future (and remember, we can only say now that the differences between transplanting a heart and putting one's brain in another body are vast; back then, both would have seemed equally improbable, if not impossible). But here we are. While there certainly have been wild speculations about the future in the past, many of those speculations have been wildly short of what actually came to pass. There were strong arguments made as to the impossibility of heavier-than-air flying machines. There was scientific debate with the advent of steam trains as to whether the human body could withstand sustained speeds of 35 miles an hour. Planets were thought to be a rarity outside the Solar System. Science fiction and most futurists totally missed the impact that computers would eventually have on the world. The human genome was supposedly not going to be mapped out for decades, if not centuries. And again, here we are. Discussing the possibilities and ramifications of something like cloning seems better than simply expecting things to work out on their own.</blockquote>

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