Re: extropian stance on cloning

T0Morrow@aol.com
Thu, 15 May 1997 09:21:05 -0400 (EDT)


A quite Extropian take on cloning appears in the most recent issue of Wired,
from the pen of none other than Microsoft's Chief Technology Officer, Nathan
Myhrvold. See Nathan Myhrvold, In Vitro Veritas, Wired at 109-10 (June
1997).

The powerful and at points quite innovative argument proceeds thusly:

1) Many people object to cloning--but why?

2) We already reproduce with technology, and nearly clone via it.

3) Cloning already happens via happenstance.

4) "Fear of clones is just another form of racism." [Interesting point, eh?]

5) "The most upsetting possibility in human cloning isn't superwarriors or
dictators. It's that rich people with big egos will clone themselves. . . .
So what? Rich and egoistic folks do all sorts of annoying things . . . ."
[Ha, ha!]

6) "The 'deep ethical issues' about cloning mainly boil down to jealousy."
[In fact, they boil down to *envy*--a related but distinctly different
emotion, and one that NM in fact means to cite.]

7) Science good; ignorance bad. [The actual language nicely mixes poetry and
irony.]

NM's Idee Forte ought to appear online eventually, if it has not already, at
www.wired.com. The magazine notes that a fuller version of the piece appears
at www.slate.com/CriticalMass/97-03-13/CriticalMass.asp.

Tom