Historic Moment Missed
Patrick Wilken (patrickw@cs.monash.edu.au)
Tue, 29 Jul 1997 13:00:09 +1000
A few days ago I posted a note to the effect that we are now have the
technology to alter the human germ line. And in the following days all I
see are nutso posts or posts that rely on science that won't become
available for decades if not centuries. Yet here we have a technology that
would allow us TODAY to create human beings (??) that would have natural
lifespans of 100s (1000s???) of years (presuming inserting the appropriate
antioxidant genes into the human genome will work the same as experiments
like those on fruit flies). Not only that, but as our knowledge grows to
gradually create completely new species of humans. Yet no-one seems
interested about this. I am happy to admit that my posts are no where as
cleanly written as say Sandberg or Feynman, but I am not willing to accept
that this is not as important a development as I know it to be. Perhaps
Perry M. is right and this list has declined to the point that people are
so inward looking that they can't even notice history marching past
outside.
best, patrick
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Patrick Wilken http://www.cs.monash.edu.au/~patrickw/
Editor: PSYCHE: An International Journal of Research on Consciousness
Secretary: The Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness
http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/ http://www.phil.vt.edu/ASSC/