Curious....

[Hondafan]

Ya know I was just thinking about the augments...
I also just watched the season premeire of kyle XY, suppose somewhere they are working on a augment? I just think that with all the fuss about genetic engineering somone somewhere nows something that the rest of us dont.

[Distracted]

If they are, it's not in the U.S., Hondafan. We're still stuck on whether fetal stem cell research is gonna be legal. Forget about the genetic manipulation of fetal tissue for "improvement of the species". Not gonna happen in my lifetime. I'm glad, too. What would happen to the failures? The theory is intriguing from a fictional POV, but the practical ethics issues give me the willies.

[CX]

Actually recently they found a way to use normal rat cells to turn them into the stem cells some people have been so focused on.

[blacknblue]

What makes my blood run cold is that I recently read about some research to splice Human genes into animal cells, in order to grow rejection proof organs for harvesting.

I don't even want to think about the ramifications of that one.

[CX]

What ramifications?

[Rigil Kent]

Mutant ninja turtles! Live action anime catgirls! The amazing dog boy!

[blacknblue]

I know that a person might as well laugh about it as scream. But theoretically, there is no scientific reason that, if they are able to do something like that, they couldn't actually make a synthetic organism with a mixture of Human and animal characteristics. Like pigs with Human genes. Or sapient chimpanzees. Or soldiers with heat vision like wolves.

If you have a government that isn't completely trustworthy (show me one that is COMPLETELY trustworthy) the possibilities for abuse are endless.

[CX]

I guess to me, the benefits of organs being there for people who need them when it's hard to get donors outweighs any potential abuse. I have to admit that I didn't think of any of that though, the only rammification I could think of would be that PETA would be whining about one more thing.

[Distracted]

Actually recently they found a way to use normal rat cells to turn them into the stem cells some people have been so focused on.

It remains to be seen whether these murine stem cells can be produced in sufficient quantities cheaply enough to practically replace cells from discarded embryos. If that happens, we might actually have some progress happen in the field, because then those who are concerned over the ethical issues surrounding the use of fetal tissue might vote to make research legal.

[Hondafan]

Scifi wise its interesting. Realisticly with health insurance the way that it is it will not surprise me if one day you cannot get health insurance if say you carry a gene for CA,MS,Parkinsons....It may not happen in 5 years or 10 but rest assured there will come a day when everyone is using some kind of retro therepy just to maintain health insurance.

[Rigil Kent]

Or sapient chimpanzees.

Cooooooolllll ....

[blacknblue]

Seriously, they are the closest to us genetically already. And chimps already use crude tools in the form of stripped limbs, and rocks as hammers. Some forest chimps hunt in cooperative packs too. Chimps can be taught sign language consisting of several (hundred or thousand?) words. How much tweaking would they have to do to nudge them the final few inches over into true sapience?

[Rigil Kent]

That would totally rock. But then, I'm biased ...

[evcake]

It will be interesting to hear what they have to say to us.

[blacknblue]

Suppose someone, just hypothetically say... a certain extremely large country located on the largest continent with an established record of not giving a rat's ass about individual rights... decided that individual workers in certain industries such as farming or mass industrial production really had no need for high level cognitive functions.

Imagination breeds boredom. Boredom is a liability when you are doing monotonous work.