5.04.2009

OH HOW SADLY WE MORTALS ARE DECEIVED BY OUR OWN IMAGINATION

The sickness in theocon bioethics goes beyond imposing a Catholic agenda on a secular democracy and using "dignity" to condemn anything that gives someone the creeps. Ever since the cloning of Dolly the sheep a decade ago, the panic sown by conservative bioethicists, amplified by a sensationalist press, has turned the public discussion of bioethics into a miasma of scientific illiteracy. Brave New World, a work of fiction, is treated as inerrant prophesy. Cloning is confused with resurrecting the dead or mass-producing babies. Longevity becomes "immortality," improvement becomes "perfection," the screening for disease genes becomes "designer babies" or even "reshaping the species." The reality is that biomedical research is a Sisyphean struggle to eke small increments in health from a staggeringly complex, entropy-beset human body. It is not, and probably never will be, a runaway train.

--Steven Pinker, The Stupidity of Dignity

3 comments:

davidboylan said...

wait, we can't resurrect the dead with cloning. what about jurassic park?!?!? this is bullshit.

SAM said...

I love Jurassic Park so fuggin much. JPark marathon soon please!? I never saw the second one.

davidboylan said...

there are several problems with your statement.
1. your dedication to jp cant be that strong if you havent seen the second one
2. saying that you never saw the second one implies that you have seen the third one. JP III might have done more harm to the concept of movie sequels than the godfather part III.
3. although jurassic park is certainly better than time indefinite, im not sure alex would approve of a movie best placed in a category with bullet in the head and speed racer.

other than that, let the marathon commence a week from tomorrow.