From: Avatar Polymorph (avatarpolymorph@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Nov 16 2002 - 21:49:33 MST
Proteomics:
Brett Paatsch wrote nting that proteomics has had an Australian involvement:
"I'm not exactly a patriot (in 2002 such things do seem a little
"scoundrelly") but this last statement seems a bit harsh.
Proteome Systems Limited was founded by Australian Keith Williams.
http://www.proteomesystems.com/company/default.asp. I think they
had to go to the US to achieve scale and market access (not unusual for
Australian Biotech's), but I recall reading Keith Williams' claims that one
of his Australian associates actually coined the term proteomics. Maybe he
did. Maybe he didn't. But what the average aussie talks about at the footy
(Australian Rules Football) or what gets written up in the
popular press is not the same as what Australian scientists are doing out of
the media spotlight.
Brett"
Fair enough. In fact, there has been some mention of lots of things,
including by Damien Broderick who indeed has launched many books here with
such amusing titles as "The Last Mortal Generation."
I guess the problem is perhaps the generic one. Once anyone recognizes that
they can alter adult dna and adult cell structures by command, they have to
address immortalist issues now, or at least life extension and youthful
appearance issues (I speak as a person with two sets of dna in my body,
laser-altered corneas and artificial lenses in my eyes). You can see already
that conservatives shrink intellectually from anything beyond fixing
diseases up. That's because they think it's unnatural (whatever that means,
maybe un-Christian?) and renders humans obsolete (1920s machine fear).
The next issues for me are those such as: guarantees for equality of
opportunity for all, whether human, artificial, augmented or even (though I
don't believe in it conceptually myself) "uploaded" - and in appropriate
cases, where a sentient being originates in another species such as a
chimpanzee. Guarantees that no resource predomination should be allocated to
any one sector (say virtuality-generating shared Matrioshka brains) unless a
coherent argument was put forward (saying it's most efficient isn't enough).
Equally this may entail restricting maximum overt distinctive births a
little, say to one every few million or tens of millions of years rather
than every year (on current possibility). In the meantime, extropians
hopefully (at least me anyhow) will search for unlimited overt growth, in
the multiverse (ethical virtualities and otherwise) and in spacetime
manipulation (from ethical quantum duplication to ethical teleportation).
Towards Ascension
Aumentar
In joy
Avatar Polymorph
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