to funny! what will they think of next....

[Konrad Hartmann]

Best article ive found

Blasts from the past: The Soviet ape-man scandal - life - 23 August 2008 - New Scientist

Whats scary is i think we could do this with todays gene technology.
An army of super strong disposable combat units.

Will chimeras have the same rights as us ?

Now scientists create a sheep that's 15% human | Mail Online

This one doesnt



Animal-Human Hybrids Spark Controversy



Parahuman - Transhumanism Wiki

http://www.nymc.edu/sanewman/PDFs/L'Observatorie%20Genetique_chimera.pdf

Yeah, that New Scientist article was the best one I've read on the story. Thanks for finding that! And yeah, I imagine it's possible given today's technology. Here's the creepiest part for me:

In November, Ivanov returned to Guinea, captured his chimps and with considerable difficulty eventually inseminated three of them. By now, he had a second experiment in mind: to inseminate women with chimp sperm. Knowing that no local woman would agree, he planned to do this under the pretext of a medical examination, but the French governor forbade it.

There is a third possible motive - that Ivanov's research was part of an ambitious plan to transform society. The high-ranking Bolsheviks who backed Ivanov were intellectuals who saw science as a means of realising their dream of a socialist utopia. "Politicians could change the political system, nationalise industries and turn farms into vast collectives - but the task of transforming people was entrusted to scientists," says Etkind. "The aim was to match people to the socialist design of Soviet society."
One way to do that was through "positive eugenics", using AI to speed up the spread of desirable traits - a willingness to live and work communally, for instance - and to get rid of "primitive" traits such as competitiveness, greed and the desire to own property. "There were many projects aimed at changing humanity," Etkind says. "Ivanov's was the most extreme but if he succeeded then that would show that humans could be changed in radical and creative ways."

To my mind, this does seem to be a likely Soviet motive. So much of the philosophy was geared towards restructuring humans into machines, that this philosophy seems congruent with it. On the other hand, much of Communist ideology also hinged upon humans as being a blank slate (by the way, I recommend Stephen Pinker's The Blank Slate, for a good dismantling of the notion) and that would seem to contradict this plan. However, perhaps the idea of a blank slate was only viewed as applicable to humans, and so by creating this new breed, the state could have a less intellectual and more controlled population. Or maybe this new breed would be seen as even more programmable and malleable than humans. I haven't read much on the topic, but I remember reading that the early Bolshevik days were fairly different than later eras, for example, with free sex being promoted to discourage notions of traditional relationships. And was it Marx who wrote of having women in a communal setting where the men would sort of have them like shared livestock? I might have that wrong.

Animal-Human Hybrids Spark Controversy
Regarding this story:

And at Stanford University in California an experiment might be done later this year to create mice with human brains.

What exactly does that mean? Mouse brains with a cognitive ability equivalent to humans? Or not equivalent because of its tiny size?

 

[Konrad Hartmann]

I totally forgot about this movie; I only remembered the old one and the one with Brando. This is an Arkoff production and I vaguely remember seeing it as a kid. Do you know Sam Arkoff's formula for a good movie?

The ARKOFF formula

During a 1980s television talk show appearance, Arkoff related his "ARKOFF Formula" for a successful, memorable movie. This states that a successful low-budget movie should include:

• Action (exciting, entertaining drama)
• Revolution (novel or controversial themes and ideas)
• Killing (a modicum of violence)
• Oratory (notable dialogue and speeches)
• Fantasy (acted-out fantasies common to the audience)
• Fornication (sex appeal, for young adults)

Samuel Z. Arkoff - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia