Quote:
Originally Posted by Oberon
Eventually, soon, probably within our lifetime, someone is going to clone a human. It's inevitable, and it will probably happen in China since the laws regulating genetic experimentation are more lax there than in the rest of the world. From this cloning will come an explosion of genetic computing, 'designer babies' as it is often called, and there will also come the potential for a new race of slave labourers.
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Yes, I certainly see a lot of future ethical issues with "biological robots", but if the profits are there and oversight is lax, I could see it happening. Obviously, a biological robot has a lot of the nagging technological issues worked out that a mechanical one doesn't. Slavery, like War seems to be one of those dark human institutions that dog us no matter what technological turns we make. (Slavery is currently resurging in the Thai fishing industry.) Given the built-in proclivities of the human male, I could also easily envisage female clones being grown and sold simply perform only one specific form of labor.
Producing human clones, whose only purpose is to provide spare body parts and donate their organs on demand seems like a distinct short term possibility too.
On the whole I think we are in transition from one international order (the sovereign nation state) to another (whatever that's going to be), which will cause ructions. Such transitions always have before. Technology and science will continue to build on what exists. Human society goes through cycles of similar form, but knowledge is constantly accumulated. That, in my opinion, is what breaks down social orders, as powers-that-be fall for the temptation to spend their effort on preventing, rather than exploiting, technological advance. Somebody
will exploit it.
We're only beginning to run into resource limits and land degradation, which always leads to trouble. Climate change and aquifer depletion are all in the news lately. As energy gets more expensive increasing amounts of marginal agricultural production become sub-marginal. A sure sign is the volatility of food and fuel prices recently. So, I can easily envisage a future where your on-line life becomes more enticing to you than your physical one, as your physical one becomes a drab struggle against growing limits, shrinking opportunities and dwindling resources. The internet in contrast, seems so boundless, dynamic and carefree in comparison. A place where you can project any image you want, regardless of how grim your real circumstances are. Frankly, that already happens.
On a lighter note maybe we can turn to the unintentionally hilarious Criswell of
Plan Nine from Outer Space fame for the answers...
Quote:
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Originally Posted by The Amazing Criswell
Greetings my friends. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future. We once laughed at the horseless carriage, the aeroplane, the telephone, the electric light, vitamins, radio, and even television! And now some of us laugh at outer space. God help us... in the future.
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God help us... in the future. Oh yeah.
