"Climate change" cultist proposes human engineerin

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Jacoby
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13 Mar 2012, 11:36 am

Pretty crazy article I just read about proposed human engineering among other scientific and policy changes to mitigate so called climate change

Changes include

-Pills or patches that cause nausea after consuming meat

-Genetically selecting embryos based on size

-Hormones therapy to children to close growth plates earlier

- Instead of a 1 child policy allowing people to choose to have 3 small child, 2 medium sized children, or 1 large child if they want a basketball player or something...

-Pills to "enhance" empathy and altruism

and last but not least

-cat eyes so humans could see in the dark... like cats...

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/a ... ge/253981/

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I have to imagine even people that believe in climate change on here think this stuff is insane. It sounds like some weird Zager and Evans song they're proposing. Think about all the possible misuses of this technology, imagine what a guy like Adolf Hitler would of done if he were able to. That type of thinking was all the rage until it went out of style after WWII. It's really a scary thought that it is coming back, I have little faith that humanity will not destroy itself one way or another.



Last edited by Jacoby on 14 Mar 2012, 11:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

simon_says
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13 Mar 2012, 11:51 am

A philosophy and ethic professor throws out some far fetched ideas of which it's said:

Quote:
He also emphasized the voluntary nature of the proposed modifications. Neither Liao or his co-authors, Anders Sandberg and Rebecca Roache of Oxford, approve of any coercive human engineering; they favor modifications borne of individual choices, not technocratic mandates


And it's Hitler time?

Transhumans are a staple of sci-fi. Modifying humans for a variety of roles like space travel and living in extreme conditions for example. These ideas have been around for a long time but they are just ideas. This guy wouldnt know the first thing about doing that work.



Janissy
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13 Mar 2012, 12:18 pm

That's pretty insane.

I suppose it's possible that this guy is no more in favor of this than you are but is just using the rhetorical trick of proposing something insane so that his later actual propositions will seem like a rational compromise in comparison.

Or maybe he's just one of those people that doesn't think things through. As a philosphy and ethics professor, he really ought to be in the professional habit of thinking things through, but you never know.



simon_says
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13 Mar 2012, 12:34 pm

In one sense he's stating the obvious but using climate change to do it.

Genetic modification of humans is coming. And whatever restrictions you place on it, it will always be legal somewhere. So the rich and their children, at least, will have access.



Tollorin
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13 Mar 2012, 3:13 pm

Jacoby wrote:
[...], I have little faith that humanity will not destroy itself one way or another.

They already doing it, and scientists studying climate try to prevent that through they warning; but because some like you refuse to believe the true they not listened. :(

And no, I don't approve those human engineering propositions.


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13 Mar 2012, 3:20 pm

This is my WTF moment of the year. Thank you.


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snapcap
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13 Mar 2012, 3:32 pm

He should try that on his kids and tell us how it went.



abacacus
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13 Mar 2012, 4:40 pm

Eh, the article says it's proposed as a voluntary measure.

I know there are some genetic engineering things I would volunteer for, but this aint one.


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Jacoby
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13 Mar 2012, 5:16 pm

even as a "voluntary" measure it's still pure insanity

the guys rationale when asked if it is ethically problematic for parents to make irreversible "choices" for their children is basically that they wouldn't be alive otherwise so they shouldn't complain and that sacrifices need to be made.

Something tells me this guy isn't making the sacrifices he wants everybody else to make



Vexcalibur
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14 Mar 2012, 12:35 am

A lot of this actually makes sense except for the pills not to eat meat (Stop f*****g with flavor, thank you very much).

There is an easier solution though. Release a plague that makes people unable to have more than two kids.

Quote:
I have to imagine even people that believe in climate change on here think this stuff is insane. It sounds like some weird Zager and Evans song they're proposing. Think about all the possible misuses of this technology, imagine what a guy like Adolf Hitler would of done if he were able to. That type of thinking was all the rage until it went out of style after WWII. It's really a scary thought that it is coming back, I have little faith that humanity will not destroy itself one way or another.
Oh sure, eugenics are evil. And if you'd remember I have always opposed this.

But I have changed my mind about this somehow. I know that once the technology is into place, it will be impossible to stop it. Of course, the ideas of this guy are going to be horribly impopular. But what about other things? Rich freaks would love things like "making sure your embryos have the business leadership gene" or a pill to remove the tendency of kids to want to study stuff that is not profitable .

It will happen and it will have terrible consequences for all. But there is nothing we can do to stop it.

So, my new hope is that the obvious destruction of the genetic pool for the people that choose to do this will make them susceptible to the ill effects of a cataclism. In other words, whilst these rich people make themselves so business oriented and light eyed that they over specialize towards the modern world. Eventually something unexpected bad will happen and will suddenly give the people that didn't specialize on stupid things an evolutionary advantage. So, all in all, we cannot do anything to stop it , but hopefully Nature will.
-------------------

I see what you are doing there. You think that if you focus on the crazyness of this guy you will get away with generalizing climate change proponents (aka scientists) as "cultist". Sorry, it won't work.

At this moment there is absolutely no reason to believe that climate change is happening, that it is man made and that the cause is CO2.


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marshall
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14 Mar 2012, 11:14 am

The dude is not a scientist. His silly opinions have absolutely zero bearing on reality of climate change.

What pisses me off is people who haven't done any research themselves have such absolute certainty that humans have no effect on the earth's climate.



Jacoby
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14 Mar 2012, 2:01 pm

marshall wrote:
The dude is not a scientist. His silly opinions have absolutely zero bearing on reality of climate change.

What pisses me off is people who haven't done any research themselves have such absolute certainty that humans have no effect on the earth's climate.


Yes, the guy interviewed here is a professor of philosophy and bioethics. I can not tell you where his certainty on the subject comes from.

It does not matter whether it is happening or not to me, there is still right and wrong and the ends(stemming climate change) does not justify the means. Science is never settled and whether it is or isn't happening isn't related to the harebrained "final solutions" people think up for it.

As for "it not going to work", I'm not sure what you mean Vex. Crazies seem to discredit themselves.



marshall
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14 Mar 2012, 2:25 pm

Jacoby wrote:
marshall wrote:
The dude is not a scientist. His silly opinions have absolutely zero bearing on reality of climate change.

What pisses me off is people who haven't done any research themselves have such absolute certainty that humans have no effect on the earth's climate.


Yes, the guy interviewed here is a professor of philosophy and bioethics. I can not tell you where his certainty on the subject comes from.

It does not matter whether it is happening or not to me, there is still right and wrong and the ends(stemming climate change) does not justify the means. Science is never settled and whether it is or isn't happening isn't related to the harebrained "final solutions" people think up for it.

As for "it not going to work", I'm not sure what you mean Vex. Crazies seem to discredit themselves.


Okay. Fine.

I still think smearing all anthropogenic climate change proponents as being "cultists" is rather annoying. It makes it appear that you have a lot of certainty that humans are not having an effect without doing the research for yourself.



Last edited by marshall on 14 Mar 2012, 2:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

shrox
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14 Mar 2012, 2:29 pm

One good solar eruption and it all comes crashing down.



Jacoby
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14 Mar 2012, 3:18 pm

marshall wrote:
Jacoby wrote:
marshall wrote:
The dude is not a scientist. His silly opinions have absolutely zero bearing on reality of climate change.

What pisses me off is people who haven't done any research themselves have such absolute certainty that humans have no effect on the earth's climate.


Yes, the guy interviewed here is a professor of philosophy and bioethics. I can not tell you where his certainty on the subject comes from.

It does not matter whether it is happening or not to me, there is still right and wrong and the ends(stemming climate change) does not justify the means. Science is never settled and whether it is or isn't happening isn't related to the harebrained "final solutions" people think up for it.

As for "it not going to work", I'm not sure what you mean Vex. Crazies seem to discredit themselves.


Okay. Fine.

I still think smearing all anthropogenic climate change proponents as being "cultists" is rather annoying. It makes it appear that you have a lot of certainty that humans are not having an effect without doing the research for yourself.


With almost all groups and beliefs, there are different factions and some of those factions reflect poorly on them as whole. With climate change proponents, their fringe seems pretty cult-ish in their anti-human and apocalyptic alarmism to me. That doesn't mean I think everybody that believes in climate change is crazy but there is a certain element to the "movement". Science is a real convenient things for lunatics to hide behind to push their own ideology and has been for a long time.



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14 Mar 2012, 4:04 pm

How is wanting to move to a carbonless economy so as to avoid catastrophic global warming which could destroy our civilization anti-human?