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The Perfect Gift: a Clone of Yourself?
Tom Bailey writes "It appears that a UFO cult is creating a company for cloning people. It costs only $200,000. They believe that humans are clones of aliens. You can check it out at www.clonaid.com. You have to wonder if these guys are really serious. I'm going to ask my parents to get me a clone for my birthday." Very strange. Is this science, humor or pure wackiness?
As a real life twin, I can testify that cloning can be a very positive experience for everyone involved :). Especially when I was growing up, it was great to have another version of myself around. Someone that I can pretty much trust implicitly, that I can compare the validity of my thoughts and feelings with.
Come to think of it, several people have told me over the years that they've fantasised about being twins or that they envy me. This desire for a clone seems to be a more common one, whatever the reasons may be. I'm no psychologist but I figure that ultimately noone wants to die, noone wants to be alone, and everyone is pretty much programmed to spread their genes one way or another, anyway.
The things my brother and me have in common are reassuring, and genetically, we are exactly the same, but of course we've had many different experiences. But even if we'd done exactly the same things, we still would've turned out individuals somehow. Similarly, any clone that you make of yourself is not going to be yourself. I'm not religious, but I'll call the part that you can't duplicate the soul.
Technical difficulties with cloning aside (I recall having read that Dolly was born with genetic material that was as old as the 'mother Dolly', reducing her life expectancy, and that the egg carrier's RNA made the clone imperfect, or something like that), then what the heck is the use? Imagine being born and knowing that you're a clone of someone that is now 40 years of age or so. It's hard to really imagine how that would feel. Sure, you're an individual, and the different periods when you're growing up are going to make sure that you as clone are going to be even more different from the first edition than a twin would be. But just being able to see yourself 40 years older is a Cassandra-complex like nightmare that must be damn hard to deal with. I for one wouldn't want to do that to anyone, certainly not a tender soul so similar to myself. Personally, I think I'd be likely to loathe my blueprint.
Aside from that, nature says that as far as procreation is concerned, the idea is to take bits from 2 separate gene pools. To really help things along, we need real children. As much as I think I'm a nice guy, I do need to evolve. Clones don't add anything new.
Froz wrote:
/]# adduser froz /]# adduser froz2 /]# adduser froz47 -
:-)
Sure, it's all fun and games with your personal clones until they start demanding their own account on your machine...
[root@localhost
adduser: user froz exists
[root@localhost
adduser: user froz2 exists
[root@localhost
adduser: user froz47 exists
-----------------------------------------------
This would also give entirely new meaning to being the root user!
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
Shocking as it may sound, cloning humans is possible and has been done already. A small image of a cloned subject is available here. The scientific article has been published here. However the behaviour of the clone may be unpredictable.
Sure, it's all fun and games with your personal clones until they start demanding their own account on your machine...
/]# adduser froz /]# adduser froz2 /]# adduser froz47
[root@localhost
adduser: user froz exists
[root@localhost
adduser: user froz2 exists
[root@localhost
adduser: user froz47 exists
Actually, this story isn't that new. About three years ago, the Rael-sect, which is responsible for this project, held a talk in my town (in Germany), which I visited with a few friends. We went there mainly for entertainment, it was certainly worth it. At least half of the spectators were, well, skeptical, and it was lots of fun asking questions about their logically rather weak ideas on the creation of mankind. For example, they think humans were genetically engineered in the laboratories of the Elohim (some kind of aliean race) in space. Apparently, the Elohim themselves were created by another higher-level species, which obviously solves all questions ;-).
Also, the way they reinterpret the bible is interesting. IIRC, Salomon's hair worked as antennae for communicating with the Elohim. It was then cut off when he annoyed them for some reason or other.
Anyway, this cloning project existed already at that time. They were planning on setting this up on some Carribean island to avoid laws on cloning.
The Raeliens are for real...They believe that Jesus was an Astronaut/alien, or something like that. Sounds like a Chris DeBurg song. They are a Canadian export from Quebec. Part of their worship is that they, as a group, get naked and have sex in an open field, I believe to call down the Mothership or something.
But then again, I am a Discordian Druid...so who am I to judge, I am not a Brehon!
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
I want a clone;
A clone of my own;
With a Y chromosome changed to an X.
And if this clone of my own;
Has a mind like my own;
It'll be thinking of nothing but sex.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
People forget that we already have clones in the real world - they're called identical twins. And you'll have noticed that identical twins are far from identical in behaviour, so if you clone yourself, chances are that s/he won't be that much like you. Your clone will be brought up in a different environment, with different parents, in a different technological age.
I fail to see why on Earth you'd want to clone yourself, because it's damn well not going to be your soul-mate or any other guff like that.
Funny thing about this story is that their headquarters is right in front of our offices. They are actually real nice people, and most of them only somewhat believe the Alien theory,
and are in it for the hot chicks. This is not a Heaven's Gate type of thing, it's nothing like a sect... It's more of an excuse for orgies.
They are also actively involved in a few software companies, btw.
I don't think the cloning is anything serious though, they've been talking about it for
years. I wouldn't trust a "religion" where the leader (Rael) participates in GT Races with
his Dodge Viper.
http://www.logient.com
In the 106th Congress, we have:
Whew. That wasn't that bad, now was it.
He replicated himself so that he could spend all his time playing. The clones would do his chores, do his homework, attend school, etc. However, it ended up with him doing all the work and covering up for the extra messes the clones created!
Remember, if you're devious enough to clone yourself, your clone knows this!
Besides, where will it end? The horror. What if someone cloned the people in those "Old Navy" commercials? No --- this is simply too much evil to unleash onto the planet.
We must stop at once!