From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Wed Jul 12 2000 - 21:21:53 MDT
At 10:34 AM 12/07/00 -0400, Mike wrote:
>Those that refuse to practice these
>technologies in the future doom their descendants to an eventual
gnomish/morlock
>existence, while those that do will maintain and improve they health and
>vitality of their bodies and genomes.
Well, this is a non-disagreement, in a way, since clear defects will surely
be fixed easily, and by almost everyone, using advanced medical
technologies. It should surely be as easy to cure gnomes and morlocks as to
grow extra brain modules, tailor your skin, modify yourself as Natasha
plans to, etc...
>My position is that parents should be able
>to fix recessive defects like eyesight deficiencies in vitro.
Ah, I shortsightedly left this bit out: as I understand it, the defect that
forces many people to peer owlishly through specs is a
childhood-developmental artefact of civilisation, something to do with too
much close work at a given focal length, not enough shifting back and forth
in the wide open spaces. What every bookworm's mother warned them of is
true: it'll ruin your eyes!
And senescence eyesight deficiencies like presbyopia kick in anyway once
you get to 50 or so. We can fix that already, up to a point, with specs -
soon, with better surgery, etc. There's no morlockish midden waiting in the
future, IMO.
Damien Broderick
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