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New stem cell tech

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mike

Paranormal Adept
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/mar/01/stem-cells-breakthrough

pretty interesting stuff, ultimatly you might even build a whole new body using these cells.

so this question came up here as we discussed the possibility of transfering conciousness to a new tailor made body.

would you want your next body to be sexual, or a non sexual type ?

as an older person, i cant help but reflect that i spent an awful lot of time and money, got myself into all sorts of crazy situations, pursuing that aspect of life, its not state i would want to relive.

id be ordering a nonsexual body personally, and if possible one that needed less food and less sleep than the one im kicking around in now

so what would you choose, if they could build your next body ?

(what a can of worms to open)
 
I'm of the mind that my superior genetics will keep me healthy for at least another 100 years or so.

At which point, I'll have my body cloned, and my brain put into the new one. Either that, or have my soul transferred, who knows what these geniuses can do in the future.

Either that, or have my brain transferred into a giant robot.
 
This is gonna sound gross, but I work in biochemical research (secretary/data entry) and our lab specialists were recently featured in the news as being part of a team who discovered that stem cells can be successfully harvested from menstrual blood.
 
I wouldn't mind new body parts ('cos, you know, after a while these things rust) but I have ethical problems with the idea of a whole new body.

Either you're murdering the previous occupant (your own flesh and blood and all) to er, move in, or you're deliberately creating a defective individual to ensure "vacant occupancy". The first is to my mind clearly wrong and the second pretty much certainly as well.
But that's just me.

Physical immortality (which consciousness transfer would seek to achieve, at least in part) also requires the end of childhood - given that there are several times too many of us now, we couldn't have people moving from body to fresh body and reproducing. Except of course that this form of immortality (or seriously delayed mortality) would be reserved for the rich, who would maintain their normal predator-prey ratio. Yeay.

Still, I think the new stem cell tech is great, and hope it will be available to improve the lives of millions.
 
Kevin Daly said:
we couldn't have people moving from body to fresh body and reproducing. .
Click to expand...

I agree with that statement. A second, or replacement body, could be made sterile, so if you had already birthed or sired children, you would not get another shot at it.

and that goes for people whose children didn't outlive them.
 
Kevin Daly said:
I wouldn't mind new body parts ('cos, you know, after a while these things rust) but I have ethical problems with the idea of a whole new body.

Either you're murdering the previous occupant (your own flesh and blood and all) to er, move in, or you're deliberately creating a defective individual to ensure "vacant occupancy". The first is to my mind clearly wrong and the second pretty much certainly as well.
But that's just me.
Click to expand...

any more than killing an animal for the table ?

morality is a luxury, it has no real meaning when it comes to survival, as any war demonstrates.

if creating blank clone bodies, perhaps using GM techniques to ensure a blank hippocampus , one thats ready to be imprinted with the recycled psyche becomes possible, and its that or oblivion, i just cant see "morals" standing in the way.

anymore than they do when we carve the turkey
 
Now that the new administration in the US has reversed the previous stem cell research policy, we in Canada are being warned it won't be long before all the researchers up here who have been making great strides in the research, will be lured over the border, as the research money in the States is much more plentiful than it is up here.

that's too bad, we can do just as well, if we only had a wallet...
 
I think making spare organs or limbs or making the blind see and the paralyzed walk is awesome. As for a new body, sure... under some cirumstances. Colonization of other worlds or for extended cosmic exploration. Limited imartality would be awesome.

As for it being more for the rich, I dont think so. Maybe it is just my entrepreneurial spirit but if I can give a person a 20 or 30 year payment plan on a new body or say I buy the colonization and teraforming rights to some planet. I need workers, so I provide the body for qualified applicants. They put in X number of years service and get the body as a sort of pention. Who knows, the possibilities are endless. I could make a bunch of money this way.
 
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