Apparently we’re back on track with stem cell research: LA Times story last week
Not all that surprising considering whatever the baby boomers want, the baby boomers get. And now that the baby boomers are poised on the threshold of their senile years, the pressure to solve Alzheimer’s must be enormous. Alzheimer’s is just one of the many maladies that stem cell research will magically cure. (I read somewhere that it might be the least curable of them all.)
The response to The Pres’ decision to lift the ban against federally funded stem cell research has been mixed. It’s about 1 to 1000 against, so you can see it’s a pretty divisive issue. The Fundamentalists of course object to sacrificing sacred life to save or improve life. I personally don’t see the difference between leaving the little buggers in their vat of liquid nitrogen and pulling them out to save the sanity of humanity, but then there’s little I see eye to eye with the Fundamentalists on. Ever since they’ve proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that a literal reading of the Bible not only okays the enslavement of one race of people under another but actually makes it a sin not to engage in it, I’ve had my doubts about that group. If the Bible did indeed say that, why in heavens’ name would we still be reading it?
This senility problem is definitely going to need attention now that we’re going to be living on into our second centuries. Anyone who has known someone with Alzheimer’s knows quality of life deteriorates to zip under its regime.
Once the Singularity hits, of course, there will be no more senility. Once we’re living large on a wafer, we’ll no longer have synapses to deteriorate. Of course there might be some oxidation of quantum computer sync nodes or perhaps some nanotubule breakage just to keep us from getting too cocky with our immortality. We’ll have some weird malady that mimics that old-fashioned meat body Alzheimer’s Disease. Something like Randomization of Human Emotion Syndrome (RHES) will plague our future selves. We’ll get all jerky with wild ideas and dream about life in reality. Totally scary stuff like that. There’ll be anti-RHES research groups too. Just can’t have any of that satanic free thinking going on. Must get dogma.
Carry on,
Scusteister
Lange Unfocused 