Hmmmm...interesting, indeed. It really makes you think for a second. What if we could genetically master this, and create another lifeform, similar to us, but able to withstand properties on other planets that would be otherwise lethal to us. We could inhabit life all over the Universe, with a "Noah's Ark-esque" type of situation. Just shoot out a pod to the nearest planet, and observe the situation.


Hmmmm..........

IMO, this is just impatience, nature has a plan, I'd rather stick to that one. Will it be in this lifetime? Who cares, if it's coming, it's coming.

And for those who think this will ONLY be used for our 'benefit' is deluding themselves IMO.

Thanks Mike, nice to know these things are getting pushed into the limelight, nothing better than some positive spin.

EMM

Originally posted by mystiq
... race of beings that are possibly related to dolphins, or at least one of their communications suggested that...

Had never considered that - human + dolphin = grey.

I guess the majority of abductee reports are similar to what a dolphin might experience in being sedated, lifted from the sea, probed, tagged, and set free. If that's what greys are doing, coming back through time and returning the favour of something in their distant past, all I can say is "payback is a b*tch!"

Originally posted by Flighty
Humans are perfect just the way we are. Faults and all.

I can't help but feel that this would be used for nefarious reasons by TPTB to produce super soldiers and willing non aware slaves for their coming Empire.

I've seen it time and again, where something is promoted for seemingly credible reasons, being hijacked by power hungry twats to use to their own evil ends.

As a side note, I felt a pang in my heart for that poor embryo that was destroyed.

If you think that people are perfect, you have set your standards pretty low, my friend.


I think it's funny how everyone echoes the sentiment that tinkering around with nature will necessarily lead to destruction and ruin. You're pretty much force-fed that idea through popular media from childhood. It's the theme of more movies and cartoons than I can count. I think it's fairly evident that it's what the government and corporations WANT you to think.

Originally posted by mdiinican

Originally posted by Flighty
Humans are perfect just the way we are. Faults and all.

I can't help but feel that this would be used for nefarious reasons by TPTB to produce super soldiers and willing non aware slaves for their coming Empire.

I've seen it time and again, where something is promoted for seemingly credible reasons, being hijacked by power hungry twats to use to their own evil ends.

As a side note, I felt a pang in my heart for that poor embryo that was destroyed.

If you think that people are perfect, you have set your standards pretty low, my friend.


I think it's funny how everyone echoes the sentiment that tinkering around with nature will necessarily lead to destruction and ruin. You're pretty much force-fed that idea through popular media from childhood. It's the theme of more movies and cartoons than I can count. I think it's fairly evident that it's what the government and corporations WANT you to think.

I think that the reason that the theme of tinkering around with nature, and its negative side effects, recurs in the pop-culture is that art imitates life. Most of us are the product of the post WWII era and the Cold War. Our society saw plenty of the dangers of playing around with Mother Nature during that time.

I doubt this is true. How can you be pure energy? you would just die without some form of mass to contain you. You would be absorbed by other masses around you, and help in their chemical reactions, whatever it be.

IF anything, GE will make man landlocked to his current form. Why would you want to be a ball of energy when you can be of a perfect body form? I doubt a female who is a ball of energy will be successful around her fellow females and males. She's be ostracized, maybe even killed.

If GE persists, man will simply be made perfect, but not change. We will eliminate zits, wrinkles, viruses, deformities, and other mutations, perfecting the human form. But we won;t go past that, because that would be viewed as freakish by the general population. And if the population rejects it, evolution still works out, making them rejects and the rest of the species continuing as it was.

I can already see how this could be the way "humans" came about from alien life to begin with. Isn't this the theory that alot of people have had about our existence, just to be shot down about how far-fetched it is? Now, we can believe WE can do it but, it couldn't have been done to US to begin with....

Gorman, like it or not, you are a ball of energy, and when the body dies, that is the state to which you return.
How do you kill a ball of energy?
Your thinking there seems to be rather primitive.
Once upon a time it was thought that if you sailed far out into the ocean, you would fall off the edge of the world.
Once upon a time folks thought that the automobile would never replace the horse.
Newspapers reported the Wright brothers test flights as a hoax.

So much negativity here. The fear is incredible.

Realize, that the prime directive of the universe is to create
That is what is has always done; that is what it will always do.
Humans are not only creations, but they are (obviously) creators.
It is inherent in their nature to continue to create.
Do you think that there ever was a time the humans did not create?
Why do you think they would ever stop?

Yes scrubs, that is what I have been saying. It is written into every myth and folk tale of every culture the world over. We are foreigners here on Earth. Without even the most primitive technology we would be unable to survive here.

So like dudes,say one of these superhumans gets infected by aids,or the common flu,how nasty is it gonna be if it evolves in them,would they make space for us lesser beings?we are the way we are because of natural selection,if the world gets overpopulated cause they are all immune,their gonna purge this earth starting with us.

Originally posted by OhZone
Once upon a time it was thought that if you sailed far out into the ocean, you would fall off the edge of the world.
Once upon a time folks thought that the automobile would never replace the horse.
(Once upon a time) Newspapers reported the Wright brothers test flights as a hoax.

A couple of hundred years from now we'd say: Once upon a time it was thought that FTL speed was impossible!

Most contend that it's impossible that ETs could have visited Earth due to the vast interstellar distances involved! They should realize that our technology is still at a very primitive stage. But a couple of hundred years hence, we'll perhaps be talking about speed not in terms of thousands of miles per hour but light years per hour!

Science fiction today is reality tomorrow. Therefore ETs millions of years ahead of us in technology could well be flitting about the Universe as a matter of course! So are they visiting us too? I can't see why not!

Cheers!

If you think that people are perfect, you have set your standards pretty low, my friend.

Low standards? A newborn baby is the most perfect thing on gods earth.
We are born PERFECT.
What happens afterwards ( environmental, cultural, pshychological) are man made issues.
If we must change something, then these are within our capabilities to improve on.
So I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, as we obviously have different standards of perfection and what quantifies it for us.



[edit on 3-4-2009 by Flighty]

Originally posted by Gorman91
I doubt this is true. How can you be pure energy? you would just die without some form of mass to contain you. You would be absorbed by other masses around you, and help in their chemical reactions, whatever it be.

And how do you know you would 'die' without some form of mass? This body is like a suit which is discarded after you die. You're in spirit form then with no need of a physical body - a higher plane of existence.

Why would you want to be a ball of energy when you can be of a perfect body form?

That's relative and subjective. Millions of years in the future, one would not need a physically constrictive body. And we wouldn't think its perfect at all! We would have grown out of the 36-24-36 syndrome!

I doubt a female who is a ball of energy will be successful around her fellow females and males. She's be ostracized, maybe even killed.

Jeez! And why would that be? There'd probably be better things than sex in the far future! This is a very physical thing. In the energy state, it will be Passé!

Cheers!

Originally posted by ElectroMagnetic Multivers
IMO, this is just impatience, nature has a plan, I'd rather stick to that one. Will it be in this lifetime? Who cares, if it's coming, it's coming.

And for those who think this will ONLY be used for our 'benefit' is deluding themselves IMO.

Thanks Mike, nice to know these things are getting pushed into the limelight, nothing better than some positive spin.

EMM

The problem with "just let it be" argument is that you never know if we were destined to do it or not.

So, the way I look at it is this. If it happens it happens, if it doesn't it doesn't.

Originally posted by dizziedame
How about our esteemed scientist find a cure for Type 1 diabetes, the common cold, Ebola, and many other diseases before they change humans to androids or Lord knows what we would create.

Discover a way to eliminate drug and/or alcohol addiction. Create a magic potion to fight obesity or skin diseases.

When scientist can do all I mentioned above I will be favorably impressed.

As we can see gene manipulation is not too difficult. Curing the ills of today's people is a much more complicated process.

Lets fix the humans we have before we create super humans.

Should we not allow humans to evolve at the preprogrammed time?

aside from the fact the human race pretty much has stunted our own evolution, curing the cold for the most part won't impress me much, I get a cold, I get over it. addiction, you don't need scientific research to get out of addiction, it's all in you, not the scientist, willpower. obesity, eat less, excercise more, once again willpower, and glandular is not an excuse, i've seen obese people with a 'glandular' problem manage to lose weight and get in shape by eating less and being more active.

personally, i think it's too bad they destroyed the embryo, it would have been interesting to see what could have turned out

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Originally posted by lunarminer
A couple of questions about all of this.

Since the OP pointed out that we now know "many" of the genes that produce leanness, longevity, and other positive traits. I think that the key word here is "many", we do not know what all of the genes do. Until we do it is too early to play around at manipulating human genes.

Let's say that the embryo that was destroyed had several positive traits reinforced, like height, strength, and longevity. The embryo was allowed to be implanted and resulted in a baby. What happens if there are unintended consequences? What happens if the baby is deformed in some way? You can't destroy the baby, that is infanticide and most of us agree that is murder.

Let's say that the defect is not obvious, maybe a genetic defect like Lou Gehrigs disease? So, our wonder child grows up, gets married and reproduces, never knowing that he/she is passing on bad genes. Now it is too late to stop, the genes have entered the gene pool and will be passed on and on and on. What do we do about that?

One of the problems that I see with genetic engineering is that our ethics, morals, and philosophy have not developed to the point where we are able to answer questions like the one I mentioned.

Then why not develop them more? Pour all our effort into doing that right now, then apply the result to the science.

Originally posted by lunarminer
Also, our science has not advanced to the point where we can guarantee that we dont' produce dangerous side effects. It is very disturbing to me that scientists are willing to proceed anyway, fully aware that their work may be damaging to the society.

How can you hope to advance or develop the science without such tests/experiments?

Originally posted by lunarminer
I do agree that genetic manipulation could result in major breakthroughs for the human race but like most technologies, there are many dangers as well. We cannot move ahead until we know more and are able to eliminate the most destructive side effects.

For those of you who will say that I am "paranoid" or that I don't understand the technology or the "safeguards" that are in place. I would mention that one of the first commercial applications of genetic engineering was insect resistant corn, called Starlink. Starlink produces a natural pesticide and was intended to be used as feed corn for livestock but the busy little bees carried the Starlink pollen to the other corn fields and before you know it, Starlink was being grown all over the place, even in fields where it was never planted. It has cost billions of dollars to try and correct but it's not likely that we can put that Genie back in the bottle.

Here is a link about Starlink,

[url=http://discovermagazine.com/2001/mar/cover ]

Last of all, I would like to say that many of the posts that I have read proclaiming that a new human superrace could be produced by genetic engineering remind me of the arguments for Eugenics. The goals for the Eugenics crowd sounded very noble and they fooled many people all over the world. The Nazi's liked what they heard and used the Eugenics arguments to support their forced sterilization programs, the "mercy killings" of the retarded and physically deformed, and of course the concentration camps.

The ethics of the 20th Century were not sufficiently advanced to control the Eugenics movement and as a result millions of innocent people paid the price.

IMO, the ethics of the 21st Century are no better equiped to control the genetic engineering movement. I think that we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past century but this time with more technically advanced tools.

Then maybe we should pour EVERY effort into increasing the ethics, first, and get that increased as soon as possible as the need for more morals and so on grows incredibly fast every single day... just look how everything is falling to pieces...