I, Human?

https://singularityhub.com/2020/01/08/the-top-biotech-trends-well-be-watching-in-2020/

Here’s an ethical challenge and also a great potential story.  Imagine a hybrid born with unexpected human characteristics.. .now what?  Euthanasia? Raise it as a lab animal even though it is disturbingly human?  Try to fit it into a human family like those chimps in 1970’s experiments?

In 2019 Japan removed restrictions from experimentation involving human animal hybrid embyos.  You don’t hear much about it today but I took a look just to see. Here are some excerpts from the report I read:

> The more ethically-challenged idea is to grow human organs directly inside other animals—in other words, engineer human-animal hybrid embryos and bring them to term. This approach marries two ethically uncomfortable technologies, germline editing and hybrids, into one solution that has many wondering if these engineered animals may somehow receive a dose of “humanness” by accident during development. What if, for example, human donor cells end up migrating to the hybrid animal’s brain?

Nevertheless, this year scientists at the University of Tokyo are planning to grow human tissue in rodent and pig embryos and transplant those hybrids into surrogates for further development. For now, bringing the embryos to term is completely out of the question. But the line between humans and other animals will only be further blurred in 2020, and scientists have begun debating a new label, “substantially human,” for living organisms that are mainly human in characteristics—but not completely so. <

So stop worrying about cyborgs and start worrying about “substantially human” creatures.

Reference note from Goodreads.com. >Asimov wrote the short story "The Ugly Little Boy" in 1958. But there is much more to the story of the little Neanderthal boy plucked out of time and transferred to the 21st century. Now, Robert Silverberg--in this second collaboration with Asimov--has made this sf classic into an engrossing novel-length tale.<

If Thine Eye Offends Me, Pluck It Out!

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/apr/16/art-activist-barbie-protester-feminist-agenda

The male gaze is inherently evil?  No man should ever be allowed to gaze at females?  Seriously?

This is feminism as a mental illness.  There are so many branches of feminism today it’s easy to lump them all together by picking one particularly particular distasteful version and imagining every subgroup is like that.  They aren’t.

There are feminist movements of which I entirely approve. There are those I find extreme. There are those I find repugnant.

This particular example is repugnant. Porn is any representation of the beauty of the female body? I take it these extremists believe that all women should have uglification surgery unless they’re lucky enough to be born horribly disfigured.  It seems you can give them no greater compliment then, “I have absolutely no sexual interest in you whatsoever. The very idea fills me with disgust.”

No, a woman should not be treated as a sex object.  However, beautiful things are beautiful. This includes beautiful human bodies, male or female.  Sexual attraction is 100% absolutely normal and healthy. It is how many species, including those which came long before Hominins, experience stimulation in order to reproduce.

Feminism? I have no problem with the general concept. Anti-sex movements?  Anti-eroticism movements?  Anti-beauty movements?

I find those very ugly indeed.

Male hating and male bashing not withstanding, we do not need a new set of Byzantine iconoclasts destroying art that they find unacceptable. We do not need ISIS destroying art that they find sacrilegious.  We do not need a group of female Savonarolas burning the Renaissance art that they consider to be full of vanities.

Barbarians have always done a good job of destroying beautiful things. Things aren’t any different now just because some of the barbarians are calling themselves feminists.  New excuse?  No.  The excuse is always the same. We are pure. This is evil. This is bad. We are saving the world. Aren’t we wonderful?

No. You are not wonderful. You are uncivilized, bigoted barbarians.

Worse, you display all the brain power of an actual Barbie. You put on the clothes, the uniforms, all the accoutrements of being intelligent, free, and capable; but in the end you are hollow headed plastic dolls playing out the roles assigned to you.

Permit me to end with a word of comfort for all who support this corruption of the human intellect.  Even if you were cursed by being born with an attractive body, even a beautiful one, I still find you utterly repugnant. I have no desire to gaze upon you.

Whose Burning What?

Susan posted: They are burning books and false idols in Pahrump this weekend. Maybe next weekend they could bring some witches.
(News report) Pastor Tony Falcone of the Mountain View chapel is preparing to cast aside the sins of the world.
"We are not going to make it that big," Falcone says as he points out the pit for the fire."I asked God to give me a vision of something I could do to help the citizens of Pahrump." Pastor Tony says.
He came up with the idea of a public bonfire. "I'm taking this yucky sin stuff I've been carrying around and I'm going to burn it," Falcone says. "It becomes like a sin offering."
The pastor invites people to bring books, statues, anything they think is not giving glory to God. "I still have an (sic) Ouija board in my house," He says. "I'm still reading my horoscope or I have tarot cards. I have statues of this. God says have no images before me."

Lois responsed: Susan, that's quite a LEAP.  Actually, they r following a practice of the early church, Acts 19:19.  We r NOT a Theocracy!  I don't know if ANY Christian who wud condon the murder of witches or people of a different life-style persuasion.  I don't know this particular group. But I DO know a LOT of Christ Followers in Phrump and they r good and compassionate people.   L.

Susan:  Supposedly we have evolved since the days of the early Christians. They thought the earth was flat. We know better. They burned books. We know better. More recently, there were some Christian good old boys who thought raping and killing black people was very acceptable in the eyes of the church. They still do. Christians used to burn women up in my neck of the woods. Now they kill doctors. Not such a big leap Lois. Many Christ Followers are good and compassionate people. Sadly, many are not.

Lois:  Many atrocities are committed in the name of Christianity. Too many believe because they are 'Christians' they can say or do what they feel without thought to how their actions affect others. Way too many 'Christians' are not very Christ-like...nor do they try.

Interesting! Just what I needed on an Easter day.  As a devout, but not church attending, Christian, I find this very provocative conversation.

I am pleased to note that the two of you came to a similar conclusion at the end, one which I also share.   That is, many self-styled Christians aren't very Christian, but I still would like to make a few comments. 

Those who know me are well aware that I consider any extremism to be a problem. I can be very tolerant toward many different attitudes as long as they don't go to extremes. I can understand Pastor Falcone's desire to draw a clear line and to assist people in cleansing their lives of what he regards as temptations and sins.

Think of a person who is addicted to drugs. They might wish to begin cleansing themselves by burning or otherwise symbolically destroying their paraphernalia. The problem is that book burning is historically associated with the most extreme of extremists. Obviously, it immediately brings up images of the Nazis burning up "Jewish" literature and scientific texts.  And who can forget the Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola, whose bonfire of the vanities destroyed much great art which sadly no longer exists in this world? (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonfire_of_the_Vanities)
When such actions have happened in the past, and when some Christians do currently believe in murder in the name of Christ, and when groups like Rushdoony's  Christian Reconstructionists want to bring back stoning, many of us feel there is cause for serious alarm.  (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Reconstructionism)

I'm sure  Pastor Falcone does not want to go around stoning or otherwise killing people, but his choice of symbolic action was unwise.

Also, I can't help note that some of the interpretations of acts 19:19 do include witchcraft.

(http://www.awmi.net/bible/act_19_19)

Let me conclude by noting that as a child I wanted everyone to be saved. It just felt right. It felt so wrong for people to be punished or rejected. But now I find myself more in agreement with Matthew 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

An Immiscible Day

What a strange day it's been today. I actually slept seven solid hours. While this doesn't sound like much of accomplishment, it has been months since I've slept for such a sustained period of time without awakening. I've also been up and active for far longer than seven hours. It's been several months since that's happened also.

Obviously, physically I'm doing better than I have in quite some time.

However, I also had to speak with an old friend about his wife's death. I've known them about 35 years. They were married for 41. I told him that I always envied him in that; that he had married once and stayed married. That I never managed.

As I said to my middle daughter, as odd as it sounds, it's hard to imagine one of them living on alone. You simply never thought of one of them without thinking of the other. It's as if one dying would mean the other one would die also.

Then again, when is life ever so simple? It's always messy. Which is why we try to cherish every precious moment that is good and do our best to get through the bad as quickly as possible.

I ought to make a poem of this, perhaps I will. The arts are good at expressing emotions which otherwise can't really be explained.

The Dark Side of Star Trek

A response to a friend's Facebook post:

I did not like Deep Space 9 when it first came out. I only watched a few of the shows. It was dark, unpleasant, and just felt soiled compared to the  usual Star Trek fare.  Years later I found out that the producer had made it that way deliberately. He wanted to create a more gritty, realistic Star Trek. He was tired of all the hope and brightness that was typical of the series.

About three years ago I decided to give it a try again. After all, a lot of time had passed since the series was new.  I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.  You could say it's because I had matured, but I think it's more accurate to say I was looking at it with fresh eyes. That is to say, I was not judging it by the usual Star Trek standards, but as a standalone series.

It is now one of my two favorite Star Trek series.  The classical argument of which you prefer, Kirk for Picard, makes no sense to me. They're both inferior.

Edvard Munch

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/28/edvard-munchs-modern-eye-_n_1628081.html

I have only known Munch through The Scream.  Ignoring his body of work was a terrible mistake.  I love this work, very like a visual Poe.