Old Email Archive

digest 1997-03-15 #001


11:28 PM 3/13/97 -0800
From: "Society for Literature & Science" 

Daily SLS Email Digest
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Date: 13 Mar 1997 19:56:11 -0800
From: Joseph Duemer 
Subject: send in the clones
Quoted from H-Nexa:
First of all, I do not see cloning as a path to immortality
at all because the/each clone has the same biological makeup
but not the memory, experience, let's call it "psychological
essence" (for lack of a term here) of the original.  So the
body lives on, but not the original "ME" i.e., essence of ME
- --IMHO no immortality has been achieved
if I do not KNOW that I am still alive.
As far as cloning people is concerned, surely someone will
quickly realize how boring the earth will be with all the
same people/person on it :-)  Besides, no one will ever
agree on who to clone, so the argument will be immortal
but probably never the person.
Seriously though, cloning does have a positive side with
regard to medicine and endangered species of animals (other
than human).  The way people are killing this planet, it
might be necessary someday to clone the last sheep, cow, plant,
tree just for food and oxygen.  Maybe we could keep a dying
species alive until we found a way to reverse the stupid
things that humanity has done in the name of humanity.
Cloning will surely be helpful to future generations.
NB:  these next comments are NOT directed at Mike and Richard, but
rather to the people who fit the description--
All this overt moralizing is just what it always is--fear:
People afraid of what they do not understand +
People afraid that someone else might be happier
(or in this case live longer) than they +
People running other people's lives without an invitation.
I do believe that a cautious eye should be cast on all this;
but this evil eye thing is just Chicken Little cloning around--again.
- --
Cynthia
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Cynthia J. Hallett
challett@jax.inter.net
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Whoever undertakes to set him[her]self
up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is
shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.
-Albert Einstein
Picking up on Cynthia Hallett's tone in her recent post re: cloning to
the H-nexa list, I'd like to suggest that whatever sort of ersatz
immortality cloning might confer, that it would be a dull and
pleasureless heaven. I know I run the risk of conflating sexual
reproduction and sexual pleasure, but I would further suggest that a
world in which cloning is common will be a world of diminished
pleasure.
A world in which the fine needle of technique pierces a little further
into the most private parts of the soul. This attitude can be
caricatured, of course--the character of George at the beginning of
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, in his speech to the young biologist,
comes to mind. But George is not entirely wrong--the young biologist
turns out to be a cold prick. And technique fails, in the end, to
satisfy.
Joseph Duemer