Cloning: Nature or Nurture

[Bube]

Originally Posted by Fox 6

Its not just looks that makes a clone, its the exact same genetic make up. So whatever natural process the original goes through the clone will develop that too, ie : cancer, baldness, near sighted.

I don't agree with that. Yes, those are in the genes, but it depends on what you do that gets them activated. You could have a potential of cancer, but it won't happen on it's own.

[Fox 6]

Bladerunner is a good movie.

[Professor S]

Originally Posted by Dylflon

Ooh. I'm quite interested in seeing Boys From Brazil now.

Its a really good movie, and the ending is absolutely chilling. Gregory Peck's performances in this and Moby Dick have convinced me that he's one of the most underrated actors of all time.

[Acebot44]

Originally Posted by Professor S

Its a really good movie, and the ending is absolutely chilling. Gregory Peck's performances in this and Moby Dick have convinced me that he's one of the most underrated actors of all time.

Yeah, and thats not even including "To Kill A Mockingbird"

[Neo]

Some of the similarities between separated twins are shocking. I heard about this two guys that each imported the same brand of toothpaste from Sweden.

But suppose a "super scientist" had a map of your brain and knew the locations of all your neurons and the presence and degree of all electrochemical memory encodings. Suppose he then reproduced you exactly. Your clone would, for all intents and purposes, be you. If the two of you were placed in a dark room and spun around when they open the door there would be no way to tell which one is the original you. Neither would you, for that matter. Since you both have the same memories and experiences you would both think you were the original.

How would you like to be told that you are a clone and must find your own way in life while the original goes back to his family... your family?

And what about spiritual considerations? If you have a soul then would it not get confused as to which body to inhabit/link up with? It wouldn't make a difference if the two of you are exact copies. But if only one of you gets a soul, what does the other one get? Nothing? Would you act any differently without a soul? Science would say no. You still have the same moral control center of the brain that your doppleganger has. Even your sense of a higher presence if dependent on the degree of development of a certain portion of your brain. The more developed that part of a person's brain is the more likely they are to be religious or to have a sense of something greater than themselves. Interesting, isn't it - that our sense of spirituality may be hard-wired. Must provide a survival advantage.

True it would be practically impossible to create a perfect copy of yourself, but is it really physically impossible? Yes quantum mechanics tells us we cannot know both the location and velocity of a particle at the same time but I would think these effects would be negligible on a macro scale. You yourself are a combination of constantly changing materials anyway.

Quantum teleportation is a real area of research which involves transporting the state of a particle from place to another. I'm not convinced it could work on a larger scale, but if it did then we would have an easy way of reproducing anything exactly.

[jeepnut]

Personally, I don't see how it benefits us to be able to clone people aside from the ability to say "Hey, look what we can do." It brings up more problems ethically and politically than it is worth. I personally think we should just drop the whole thing.