The technology exists to clone Stephen Hawking. Although no one has had the nerve to do it, the same technology that was used to clone other animals would work on humans. Various governments and religions have taken a stand declaring cloning humans to be immoral. But I’ve never heard a reason why cloning should be banned.
So I say let’s clone Hawking. Yes, I understand that the clone will not start out with the knowledge or skills of Stephen Hawking. It’s like having an identical twin separated at birth by both space and time. But – is there something genetic about Hawking that would make his clone have the same abilities as Stephen himself? What if the clone were raised in an ideal environment where he was trained by the world’s leading physicists. Would the clone pick up where Hawking left off?
Whether it worked or not we would at a minimum learn a great deal about cloning. The possibility that his skills might live on in the clone would be a gift to the human race.
So – I’d like to open up a discussion as to why we shouldn’t do this. Thoughts?
What about combining the geniuses of Hawking and Dvorak? Should science make THIS happen? 🙂
#93 – hazza,
My kids fit into my life. Yes it required changes to my life but they ARE NOT the center of the world. I love them like they are but they don’t control it.
I didn’t say that they need to be in control of you. I said that proper parenting of your kids should be more important than your own life. They should not control your life. They should receive proper discipline so they don’t scream at the tops of their lungs in fancy restaurants during an 8PM dinner, for example. But, yes, they should be more important to you than your own happiness. They did not ask to be born. You owe them a huge responsibility to give them the best life possible. That does not mean spoiling them. It does mean putting their needs before your own.
That is my opinion as a non-parent. Discount it if you want. Disagree with it if you want. I am entitled to my opinion though.
ah…no.
I can say with certainty that a huge part of his insight comes from being locked in his chair to the Nth degree. I had no clue (nor desire) i actually was very good at sound engineering and understanding how waveforms & theory applies to much more than just music, until after I broke my back at 16 and ended up in a chair.
You may clone the potential, but it is the life experience and the time in history that one is surrounded in that drives the mind to it’s opinions and concepts.
They will be sorely disappointed in the clone they produce. -esp since any new theories that prove a current (global) theory (that is currently stated as fact) is wrong, will be suppressed or called quackery. It is quite obvious they want to use a crippled genius just to help sidestep the ethics issue behind cloning a human. They know they have a far better chance of getting an “emotional judgment” in favour of cloning, than one based on science or facts. (science abandoned facts long ago – no profit)
-Just ask any lawyer.
-s
(-do you really think they would publish this clones thoughts if he *proved* Einstein’s theories were wrong?)
Minor after thought:
Now..being “locked” in a wheelchair for some 29 years, if I could go back in time,
I would not have changed a single thing.
I was very athletic (not sports, but solo stuff-biking, skating, hang gliding, gliders, rapids, mountain climbing etc)
Having all that taken from me allowed me
to explore Life at the fabric level (and all it’s connections and nuance) to such a degree that i now cannot bear to think how shallow i might have been had i not had this side of Life to complement the other.
It took me about 15 years before the cloud of anger and disappointment of the injury washed away. -but wow, what a great payoff when it did..
-s
yes
we should clone Stephen hawking and wait until his body is at a mature enough age we would put his brain in the new body. Of course we would have to ask for the permission of the owner of the awesome brain first. It may be risky but I think if it works, the developement of more concepts and ideas would come at a much faster rate.
YES