A regular call...

[Xarthedia]

...followed by some random articulation and my mind spinning out of control afterwards, as per usual.

Apparently the lady I just talked to isn't too comfortable with the idea of gene technology. One of the last things she told me once I'd helped her solve the problem she was experiencing was something along the lines of:

"It's just disconcerting that they'll probably be cloning humans in the future. So strange."

And no, I have no idea why she told ME that. It's possible she just formed the opinion and wanted to get it off her chest, which is fine with me, I suppose, as long as it doesn't take her eons to actually express it. Five seconds is fine.

I just can't help but think that while gene technology, cloning and whatnot sounds strange to a lot of people right now... Well, that's just history repeating itself.

The Earth is round! - WHAT?
Humans have evolved from apes! - WE HAVE?
AIDS infects people regardless of sexuality! - IMPOSSIBLE!

Y'know?

[Tufty]

Interestingly, no one ever thought that the world was round. Apparantly the misconception was created in a novel at some point or something.

Sorry, i'm pedantic.

[rvdammit]

The misconception, in part, come from Columbus' voyage. Plenty of people said he was an idiot in his planning. The received wisdom is because they thought the waorld was flat, however it was his circumference was half what anybody else said, with proof.

[protege]

Anyone who has read some Jules Verne...will know that his stories featured things a bit ahead of their time--submarines, undersea voyages, etc. Things that are pretty common now.

He wasn't the only one...Da Vinci designed a flying machine. It worked, but it would be several hundred years before the first successful airplane flight.

I'm sure people thought Karl Benz, and Gottlieb Daimler were nuts with their little "horseless carriages." Of course from that humble beginning, arose the mighty Mercedes-Benz! Several of Benz's early vehicles are still around...and in working order. Not too shabby for something built in the 1880s!

In other words, as long as there are "impossible" things, there will be people to solve them. It might take some time, but eventually, such problems will be overcome.

[Gurndigarn]

Cloning humans? Possibly, but not by an intelligent company/person in any part of the world that has legal systems like ours. Can you imagine the lawsuits if a clone ends up with any sorts of defects, especially something like the premature aging that Dolly developed? Especially if it happens during the teenage years? "I'm develping cervical cancer at 14 that's going to kill me, and it's all their fault! I deserve a bazillion dollars for pain, suffering, and shortened lifespan!"

[Becks]

Can you imagine the lawsuits if a clone ends up with any sorts of defects, especially something like the premature aging that Dolly developed? Especially if it happens during the teenage years?

Was it REALLY premature aging? She was cloned from a what? 5 year old sheep? At the age she died at, taking the age of the sheep she was cloned from, she died within the standard life expectancy.

[Rahmota]

Yeah Dolly showed part of the problem of why real world cloning wont be able to do all the special neato wonderful things science fiction cloning can do.

Too bad too I could use some new knees right about now. Maybe see what cybernetics are doing.