Re: human evolution and artificial birth

From: zeb haradon (zebharadon@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Jun 28 2000 - 18:45:22 MDT


>From: hal@finney.org
>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.com
>To: extropians@extropy.com
>Subject: Re: human evolution and artificial birth
>Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 15:39:02 -0700
>
>It seems that there will be a problem with the adoption of artificial
>wombs and other changes to the natural conception/birth process, because
>we won't know for a long time if there are bad effects. This would slow
>down the adoption rate.

I dunno.. the benefits are so incredible that I would expect women to adopt
it even with a certain amount of risk. It negates what basically becomes a
disability, and an extremely painful and risky event. I also would expect
that, because it has a gender angle, it can be pushed as a feminist thing -
women will (rightfully) ask why men are making this decision when it's not
something they have to go through. Issues of freedom which have to do with
inequality are always pushed a lot harder then lacks of freedom which effect
everyone - this is why abortion is legal and marijuana is not.

>
>First you do it with animals, and if that seems to work, you try it
>on a few people. Wait at least a decade, maybe more like 20 years,
>and make sure the children are OK and can reproduce OK.

Well, hopefully they'd do it on animals first before they put it on the
market, just like with anything else.

>
>Now that it seems to work, you can try it on somewhat larger numbers of
>people, and make sure that there are no rare side effects and problems.
>And so on, with gradually increasing numbers every 20 years or so.

You're speaking as if there would be some central entity making this
decision. If the FDA would approve it, there would be some early adopters -
mostly infertile women probably, and it might be originally hailed as an
infertility treatment - but I would expect it to go much faster then most
medical innovations.

>
>It's not the kind of thing that can be adopted en masse in just a decade
>or two. It sounds like it would take centuries before you could have
>widespread changeover.
>
>Hal

---------------------------------------------------
Zeb Haradon (zebharadon@hotmail.com)
My personal webpage:
http://www.inconnect.com/~zharadon/ubunix
A movie I'm directing:
http://www.elevatormovie.com

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