Raithe Posted October 17, 2016 Posted October 17, 2016 It's a good idea, but you have to be careful of just what you engineer out. Who knows what might drive us into an evolutionary dead end if you start taking short cuts without any consideration for the consequences. Health tweaks are good, adjusting for the possibility of outer space travel or easier colonisation of not-perfect terrestrial worlds (if we ever get there). Then again, there's going to be the balance of genetically engineered bioware along with cybernetic interfaces and implanted technologies. Heh, now I'm inspired to go running for the old Shadowrun books. Shall we all start listing the joys of transhumanism right now? 1 "Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum."
Azdeus Posted October 19, 2016 Posted October 19, 2016 Well... Why? Well my answer here has more to do with the science of politics than the politics of science. In the United States the federal government has a clearly defined role and there is a tremendous amount of information that is publicly available so tax payers can see what they are paying for. In the early 2000's the federal government was funding stem cell research. A lot of tax payers had a problem with that because they were paying to create human life, viable embryos, solely for the purpose of destroying them. The moral dilemma is obvious. The solution of course was that the work could go on but only with private financing. The public does not get to make moral decisions on things they are not paying for. So you'd rather see aborted fetuses and similar be destroyed for no good reason? They could serve a greater purpose and help people, but instead they just get binned. I'm so sick and tired of religion getting in the way of progress, we're already hundreds, if not thousands of years behind if not for such things. It's a good idea, but you have to be careful of just what you engineer out. Who knows what might drive us into an evolutionary dead end if you start taking short cuts without any consideration for the consequences. Health tweaks are good, adjusting for the possibility of outer space travel or easier colonisation of not-perfect terrestrial worlds (if we ever get there). Then again, there's going to be the balance of genetically engineered bioware along with cybernetic interfaces and implanted technologies. Heh, now I'm inspired to go running for the old Shadowrun books. Shall we all start listing the joys of transhumanism right now? *Looks through the rules for Shadowrun, gets annoyed again* Yeah... no, I love the world of Shadowrun, but that ruleset, the layout, it's horrid. :/ Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. - H.L. Mencken
aluminiumtrioxid Posted October 19, 2016 Posted October 19, 2016 *Looks through the rules for Shadowrun, gets annoyed again* Yeah... no, I love the world of Shadowrun, but that ruleset, the layout, it's horrid. :/ Well that particular problem is fairly easy to solve... "Lulz is not the highest aspiration of art and mankind, no matter what the Encyclopedia Dramatica says."
Raithe Posted October 19, 2016 Posted October 19, 2016 *Looks through the rules for Shadowrun, gets annoyed again* Yeah... no, I love the world of Shadowrun, but that ruleset, the layout, it's horrid. :/ Eh, just read the fluff and not the crunch in the old Street Samurai Catalog or Man and Machine... It's what gets the mind a-whirling. "Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum."
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