From: E. Shaun Russell (e_shaun@extropy.org)
Date: Mon Apr 29 2002 - 20:48:11 MDT
First of all, I have to say that I have been immensely impressed by
virtually all of Hal's posts in the past couple of months. He got post of
the month honors in Exponent last month, and he is currently the leading
candidate to do it again in the next issue. Keep it up!
Hal Finney wrote:
>Your response is:
>
> B4. I want to wait for the results to be replicated in human beings,
> then I would be willing to go forward.
Personally, when it comes to affecting me directly, I have to admit that I
want to "wait and see" what happens after another person tries it. Since
misinformed research or unforeseen circumstances could mean the difference
between years of moderately enhanced pride (I say moderately, because what
father wouldn't be proud of his child?) or years of emotional sufferance, I
would rather eschew the former than go through the latter.
So yes, I'm a B4.
>Question 2:
>
>If your answer to question 1 was B or C, then the question is what
>limitations, if any, you think should be imposed on other people.
>Should they be allowed to take answer A and proceed with the experiment
>based solely on the mouse results? Or would they have to wait until it
>was proven safe and effective in other animal models, or in human testing
>(clinically supervised)? Where do you draw the line for other people?
I'm not one to interpret my opinions as being conclusively "right" or
"wrong" for others. I don't see why anyone else shouldn't have the option
of procreating in the fashion you describe, regardless of limited
information. It reminds me somewhat of Heinlein's _Time Enough For Love_
where a set of genetically identical twins (male and female) are raised
without any taboos about incest. Eventually, once under the guidance of
Lazarus Long, who determines that there probably shouldn't be much risk in
procreation, he lets them do as they please.
Ultimately, if it isn't affecting anyone else in an obviously obnoxious
way, I say "do what thou wilt..." etc.
________________________________________________________
E. Shaun Russell Operations Officer, Extropy Institute
e_shaun@extropy.org http://www.extropy.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hear my music at: http://www.mp3.com/eshaunrussell
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
~K i n e t i c i z e Y o u r P o t e n t i a l~
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:13:42 MST