Scientists grow bigger monkey brains using human genes, replicating evolution • Hacker News Board

Re: Scientists grow bigger monkey brains using human genes, replicating evolution

#171

Post by whytaka » Sun, Nov 15, 2020, 10:33 PM UTC

belval wrote: post #158

klunger wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't. It makes me sick to my stomach. I am speaking as someone who is pro-choice, pro-GMO's and pro-stem cell research, etc. This research has crossed a line that none of the above do. It is creating a new kind of sentience, a new kind of soul. And, what's the point? To confirm a theory about a gene? So fricking what. That really doesn't matter, not in relation to the possible consequences: someone taking this res…

Have you ever stopped and thought about why you feel in such way towards these experiments? Why do you see sentience as the line not to cross and even go as far as to call it a "dark path"? You use a lot of wording that are very religious sounding such as "soul", "excommunicated", "dark path", but have you considered that you cannot really excommunicate a scientist, that the mere concept of a soul might be wrong? To…

If there's any science of morality to be done, the most basic quantum of moral value is suffering. Sentient creatures have greater capacity for suffering, being aware of their pain and the injustice of their existence. If we are to bring it into existence, we are responsible for its suffering.

Re: Scientists grow bigger monkey brains using human genes, replicating evolution

#172

Post by vmception » Sun, Nov 15, 2020, 10:34 PM UTC

grawprog wrote: post #46

I find it hard to describe how I feel about this. These scientists essentially created what may have been a new species, that perhaps would have had similar sentience to us and had them terminated after 100 days. The cat's out of the bag with this research so to speak now. Someone's bound to do this again The part about whether they should have been born or not, which was the ethical thing is what tears at me. Is it…

I would like to see it be born. I want to know where this goes. What other genes it needs to become superior, or what genes we can tweak to optimize some things further.

Humans are have tons of issues including cellular and cognitive deficiencies. This is a way to learn more about that and fix it.

Sure, someone will make the new slave labor force, let's cross that bridge when we get there.

Re: Scientists grow bigger monkey brains using human genes, replicating evolution

#173

Post by whytaka » Sun, Nov 15, 2020, 10:37 PM UTC

renewiltord wrote: post #55

grawprog wrote: post #46

I find it hard to describe how I feel about this. These scientists essentially created what may have been a new species, that perhaps would have had similar sentience to us and had them terminated after 100 days. The cat's out of the bag with this research so to speak now. Someone's bound to do this again The part about whether they should have been born or not, which was the ethical thing is what tears at me. Is it…

Our track record for messing with the fundamental fabric of reality is creating antibiotics, and over the period of a century saving so many lives that wars of earlier periods are negligible in comparison. A natural reaction from people with high sanctity/degradation (in the MFT sense) is to avoid touching the trolley lever at all points. Decision making is considered association with the decision. The naturalistic f…

> No, if you can save billions and you choose not to, you have killed them.

The trolley problem remains unsolved. I don't find arguments anymore persuasive when they are written as declarations.

Re: Scientists grow bigger monkey brains using human genes, replicating evolution

#174

Post by quickthrower2 » Sun, Nov 15, 2020, 10:38 PM UTC

whytaka wrote: post #173

renewiltord wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our track record for messing with the fundamental fabric of reality is creating antibiotics, and over the period of a century saving so many lives that wars of earlier periods are negligible in comparison. A natural reaction from people with high sanctity/degradation (in the MFT sense) is to avoid touching the trolley lever at all points. Decision making is considered association with the decision. The naturalistic f…

> No, if you can save billions and you choose not to, you have killed them. The trolley problem remains unsolved. I don't find arguments anymore persuasive when they are written as declarations.

How do you solve it? What does the solution look like? It's not like the 4-colour problem.

Re: Scientists grow bigger monkey brains using human genes, replicating evolution

#175

Post by downrightmike » Sun, Nov 15, 2020, 10:39 PM UTC

PeterisP wrote: post #163

downrightmike wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heinlein's Starship Troopers novel touched on this. Neo Dogs are a novelty in society, a sideshow to the general public, but they have the Intelligence similar to a human moron, but is a Mozart for their species. And they use them in war, which is their main use. The recruiter that works with the protagonist, was a bonded partner. They bond deeply to their Neo Dog and if the Neo Dog dies, it is more humane to kill th…

It's interesting that the novel assumes that the bonding is likely to be stronger than almost all other bonds humans form - for example, we grieve when our spouse, best friend or child dies, but we don't usually presume that euthanizing the grievers asap would be kinder than having them to go through grief and rehab. It would seem plausible for some of the individual bonds to be like that, but notas a general rule.

Yeah, the bonding process seems like immersion when learning a language, I figure that the handler's lost all connection to that unique world they were immersed in and couldn't cope. Kind of like losing your self identification when people rely on their jobs to give them an identity. Who are the handlers without the Neo Dogs?