Cogito ergo sum

An article at the NY Times online:

Two monkeys with tiny sensors in their brains have learned to control a
mechanical arm with just their thoughts, using it to reach for and grab food and
even to adjust for the size and stickiness of morsels when necessary, scientists
reported on Wednesday.

Over the years I have thought a lot about this kind of sci-fi medical engineering. After shows and movies like the Six Million Dollar Man, Robocop, The Terminator, and Star Wars; I have always believed that, in my lifetime, I would see bionics and cloning to help further life expectancy and/or help people with disabilities. Scientists are constantly making improvements in our everyday lives, from prosthetics to medicine, and people are living longer, more productive lives.

Then you have your religious zealots out there ruining all the fun. Let's not take into account that I am a non-religious man, that is another post all together (collect some plutonium to generate 1.21 gigawatts of electricity to power a flux capacitor in a Delorean traveling 88 mph and set the date to next year to read it). These people worship a God that they believe wants us all to do well, however, most religions frown upon things like cloning, contraception, or death penalties. For thousands of years, mankind has been making strides to lengthen life (burying people 6 feet under to prevent plague, using plants and stuff to make medicines to cure disease, banishing evil-doers in jail cells) and the life expectancy of man has increased dramatically. People 2000 years ago lived to about 25, now they live to between 80 and 110 because of all the collective knowledge of scientists and shaman that developed ways of living better.

As a man with management experience, I was very open to new ideas and suggestions to help make work a better place, be it a time saving method or a safer way to do something. I was open to try anything as long as it was not counter-productive, so when the idea passed muster and worked, we went with it. Why not make work better? Everyone looks for ways to make life better. Otherwise, there would not be coffee or Red Bull. Or Chocolate. Or cars. Or the Internet. So what I worry about is the ethical line that people will not cross because of what the Pope or Jerry Fallwell say. Life will be better if we only have sex for pro-creation? That homicidal maniac in prison that killed his wife and 5 children then ate them deserves to live? Seedless watermelons are the devils fruit?

If you told me that you could clone me, creating a new little Harry that would be kept under tight observation and preserved to be completely healthy, I would say "do it". You could take little Harry and store him on a research farm in Idaho where his life would be that of purity and perfection, then, when my liver rots from the tequila and whiskey, we harvest it and give it to me. It would be a perfect match. Or, when I am 80 and my bones hurt and my eyes don't work, transplant my brain into little Harry's young body. Then clone him again. Every 20 years I could reclone and live forever so I could see space travel.

Unethical? Maybe. It is hard for me to grasp the idea that there is the technology to create tissues and organs from pig fetuses or placentas or unused cellular organism to help save lives, cure disease, undo retardation, make people walk, and reverse aging, but we don't do it because of religion. Cloning me for organ farming might not be right because an actual person is made, but if you can clone my organs, do it.

Does your God hate you? Does your God not care about what you life becomes? Does your God want you to suffer? If your God created cows and brussel sprouts for food, water to drink, and man to better his life, then what man discovers should not be in question. If it is then God hates you.