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Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

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Re: Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Clusters of cells can't be 'tortured in a lab,' From a Hindu perspective, consciousness begins associating with the body at the moment of conception. Though it does not fully inhabit it yet.

Quite odd to see this downvoted, as it just seems to be an interesting fact.

The Hindu take on consciousness is as relevant to this thread as the Pastafarian take on consciousness.

Re: Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

#192
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone that doesn't abhor religion, the following isn't meant as argumentative, but rather curiosity: > Religion serves a very important role in society and we abandon it at our peril. What "important role" might that be? I don't see the necessity of religion and don't think there's anything inherent of religions that can't be supplemented by the surrounding culture.

In my travels around the U.S., I encountered many institutions helping the disadvantaged, and almost all of them were religious, mostly Christian or spiritual. I don't know any other organization or entity feeding, clothing, listening, aiding those who need it, day in and day out, giving time and effort and resources without expecting anything in return. No photo ops or social media posts. With Christianity supposedl…

The US made the welfare state a dogmatic evil. In other places it's percieved as necessary, and it does replace the role of religious institutions of taking care of the underprivileged.

So, learn from europe and other social democratic states. Stop believe in the dogma of the invisible hand, and that what makes money is inherently good.

Re: Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Clusters of cells can't be 'tortured in a lab,' From a Hindu perspective, consciousness begins associating with the body at the moment of conception. Though it does not fully inhabit it yet.

Quite odd to see this downvoted, as it just seems to be an interesting fact.

Diversity is only supposed to go skin deep. Anything more substantial, especially agreements between "good" religions and evil Christianity enrages the Silicon Valley hivemind.

Re: Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you finish reading the article? > After 10 days, there were 103 of these chimeric embryos remaining, but by day 19 only three still survived. After that, the embryos were terminated before they developed any further. Clusters of cells can't be 'tortured in a lab,' there are plenty of legitimate problems in the world to be outraged about but this really isn't one of them.

Okay, on day 19 three of them are clusters of cells, how about day 280? How about year 5? I think the argument is that a majority of people would find it unethical to continue to develop viable embryos, and even more unethical to conduct research on them were they to mature.

The world is not black and white.

I find those experiments until a certain threshold okay.

1 day: no problem here 20 days: still no issue.

Life doesn't start just because we let a biological machine execute something.

Re: Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you finish reading the article? > After 10 days, there were 103 of these chimeric embryos remaining, but by day 19 only three still survived. After that, the embryos were terminated before they developed any further. Clusters of cells can't be 'tortured in a lab,' there are plenty of legitimate problems in the world to be outraged about but this really isn't one of them.

Okay, on day 19 three of them are clusters of cells, how about day 280? How about year 5? I think the argument is that a majority of people would find it unethical to continue to develop viable embryos, and even more unethical to conduct research on them were they to mature.

Too late to edit to add: when I say "continue to develop" I don't mean to continue creating new viable embryos, I mean allowing the existing embryos to mature.

I think both cases are probably unethical (creating to begin with, and secondly, more unethically, to bring them to further maturity, or even to the point of being self-supporting, i.e. fully alive)

If we start going down this road, eventually someone will allow them to be brought to life.

We already know the horrors wrought on other humans by our very selves in the name of "science" in the past (think unit 731, not really science, but "science"), I can only imagine we'd do worse to something not fully human.

Re: Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is unnatural about the behaviour of humans. From a purely deterministic point of view, I totally see his point honestly. Ive often thought that the dichitomy between human action and natural processes is a false one.

> What is unnatural about the behaviour of humans. If we define "natural" to mean "things that happen", then sure, I would see no difference between natural things and human things. But we use the word "natural" to separate some of our actions from the actions of animals. I think we could come up with a list of things that people do that animals don't do. Looking at actions from the standpoint of culpability, intenti…

Bee and wasp foragers give each other directions to food sources every day - not usually by pheromonic recruitment, although a few species including V. mandarinia do use that method, but by communicating. As far as we know, they don't have symbolic language or anything like the same level of abstraction we do, which is reasonable when our brains outsize theirs by eight orders of magnitude, but that doesn't stop them telling each other what they need to know. And that's just hymenopterans; we should also talk about corvids, who are well known to pass knowledge across populations and generations, and also to possess tool use and theory of mind.

The definition of "unnatural" toward which you're extensionally groping here is "things only humans, and no other animals, do". I suspect you are going to find it a considerably narrower category than you presently appear to imagine. I also don't think it is going to lead you anywhere useful; many anarchoprimitivists have trodden this ground before you, and if nothing else it may be worth familiarizing yourself with some of their work lest you find yourself in one of the same pitfalls they so often do.

Re: Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, on day 19 three of them are clusters of cells, how about day 280? How about year 5? I think the argument is that a majority of people would find it unethical to continue to develop viable embryos, and even more unethical to conduct research on them were they to mature.

Too late to edit to add: when I say "continue to develop" I don't mean to continue creating new viable embryos, I mean allowing the existing embryos to mature. I think both cases are probably unethical (creating to begin with, and secondly, more unethically, to bring them to further maturity, or even to the point of being self-supporting, i.e. fully alive) If we start going down this road, eventually someone will all…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

interestingly the perpetrators received immunity from the US...in exchange for information...I wouldn't be surprised if history repeats itself and a lot of people are counting on it...

Re: Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

#199
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a great discussion to have when the matter at hand is that subtle. Frankensteining together human stem cells and monkey blastocysts until something works is pretty far from surgically selecting specific genes. From the article: The announcement of the new chimeras will no doubt be labelled “unnatural” or “playing God” by some people – but the same could be said about many scientific breakthroughs. An iPhone is u…

"We need a better understanding of consciousness" I disagree. A small lump of cells is not more conscious or capable of suffering than a cow which most of us accept being killed for a steak.

[citation needed] No one has any idea what consciousness is, how it arises, what its physical correlates and boundaries are, what perceived valence corresponds to, whether small systems can experience pleasure or suffering beyond what humans are used to...

Re: Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good question. Ear-mouse wants to hear the answer: http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1945000/images/_1949073_mouse_...

Ear mouse cant hear the answer because its additional ear is just some cow cartliage that's been molded to resemble an ear.

Very much unlike Michael Levin's tadpole gut-eyes: https://youtu.be/XheAMrS8Q1c?t=743
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