Comments on: Cult has first human clone

Cult has first human clone

luckyclone — Thu, 26 Dec 2002 21:13:25 -0800

Cult says it has first human clone, and it's a girl. Clearly this is an incredible achievement for science, but what consequences will this have on the near and distant future? Is cloning technology being utilized by the wrong people? Some consider the fear of human cloning to be superstitious. But what if somebody taught the clones karate?

By: stevis

stevis — Thu, 26 Dec 2002 21:40:47 -0800

I wonder if the clone is of Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, but born by her daughter. If so, her daughter would be her mother and her child would be a twin to her grandmother... sort of. I see weird family trees as a result of this.

By: elwoodwiles

elwoodwiles — Thu, 26 Dec 2002 22:05:26 -0800

Clones: Rednecks of the 21st century.

By: elwoodwiles

elwoodwiles — Thu, 26 Dec 2002 22:27:21 -0800

Here is the link to the raelians if anyone's interested. Personally I think they are bluffing, but on the other hand they did send a representive to congress and spoke against the banning of cloning.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Thu, 26 Dec 2002 22:28:14 -0800

"Emboldened by this fall's Republican sweep in Congress, Bush administration supporters are preparing a fresh effort to pass legislation that would outlaw all forms of human cloning."

By: shoos

shoos — Thu, 26 Dec 2002 22:29:40 -0800

It will probably turn out to be untrue. I seriously doubt these people have the resources to make something like this happen. About four years ago some random Korean group claimed they were the first to create a human clone, but killed it at an early developmental stage. Not many believed that one.

By: backOfYourMind

backOfYourMind — Thu, 26 Dec 2002 22:31:04 -0800

The Raelians, who claim 55,000 followers worldwide, believe life on earth was established by extraterrestrials who arrived in flying saucers 25,000 years ago, and that humans themselves were created by cloning. Can't help but be a wee bit skeptical about claims made by this lot...

By: elwoodwiles

elwoodwiles — Thu, 26 Dec 2002 22:42:22 -0800

I really needed to get all this in one post, I know, but I keep digging around. So here is the testimony before the US Congress I alluded too. It (somewhat disapointingly) doesn't refer to all the UFO hocus-pocus; its actually a pretty well thought out argument in favor of cloning research. That said, perhaps this is a 'genie out of the bottle' sort of problem: we can pass laws until the Greys come home, but somebody is going to make clones anyway. You can't fight the future.

By: Opus Dark

Opus Dark — Thu, 26 Dec 2002 23:11:30 -0800

Does anyone else find the basic cloning thing a little uninteresting? I mean, as far as we know, all you get is another standard issue human being. Big deal. Now, if you get some surprising extra features, that would be interesting...or, if you get a model who's synapses are tuned to the original's to such a degree that the clone could quickly absorb its predecessor's ideas and thought patterns, and then amplify them - you know, like Einstein Everlasting - now that would be interesting...but just another human beano...who cares, really? Now, cloning for spare parts - or spare bodies - or building designer humans - those are whole other juggernauts...

By: delmoi

delmoi — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 00:08:45 -0800

Well, once you actualy manage to create a cloned fertilzed egg, the rest is just the application of 30 year old technology. Anyone with a fertility clinic could probably pull it off, after reading the science papers about cloaning. It's not like building a nuke or fusion plant, which requires billions of capital. You really have all you need in a well-stocked bio lab. That said, unless they figured out a way to 're-age' the DNA, they are probably going to create a fucked up little girl :( Of course, IMO, once you fix those problems, clone away!

By: Ron

Ron — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 00:18:16 -0800

What was that one movie that said cloning was like making a copy. And a clone of a clone is like a copy of a copy and the more you do it the more it isn't like the original? Is that true or did they just make that up? If so I guess a clone is a copy and isn't exactly like the original. Close, but no cigar. I always want to watch GATTACA when the word clone flies around even though it isn't about clones.

By: luckyclone

luckyclone — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 00:33:16 -0800

Um, I think that was Multiplicity, with Michael Keaton.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 02:09:05 -0800

Ron: they just made that up.

By: lupus_yonderboy

lupus_yonderboy — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 03:40:26 -0800

Raelians are big in Montreal, my part of the world, and are generally regarded with bemusement. I cringed a bit at the use of the descriptor 'cult' in the write-up; they are a totally non-threatening -- if a bit loopy -- and generally regarded like a family's dotty aunt. (Well, if your dotty aunt was a silicone-enhanced stripper who wore a six-pointed star medallion, espoused free-love orgies, and spent their weekend's hocking the self-published cosmology tracts of a former French race car driver.) They've been around for over two decades and have regularly demonstrated their sole talent: Grabbing headlines by taking whatever's topical and hitching their wagon to it. Abortion and sex-ed in the eighties? Rael handed out condoms to school kids. Gay rights in the early 90s? Rael staged free love-ins. Catholic sex abuse scandals in the last year? Rael's followers picketed local Catholic high schools, urging students to sign apostasy pledges. Has Rael and co managed to clone a baby? Well, they had set up a secret lab in West Virginia two years ago and seemed close to success until the baby's "father" -- a poor fellow who wanted to clone his dead son -- got to chatty and US officials shut it down. Last year, Boisselier -- who claims to be a scientist but I think got her degree from Crack Jack U -- said a small army of 50 (?) Rael women were ready to bear the first clones. Even if they haven't managed to clone a baby, they've been the top story on CNN for the last hour. I think that's what they were after all along.

By: angry modem

angry modem — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 05:28:18 -0800

after hearing people tell me an invisible genie in the sky made the earth 6,000 years ago, I think the whole flying saucers bit isn't too farfetched. but I doubt it's a clone.

By: lometogo

lometogo — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 05:30:54 -0800

Yea for cults! I've not been able to access the Raelian site [perhaps they should clone some of their servers] but I find this cult much more pleasant than the Bush one whose main preoccupation seems to be the suppression of life rather than its creation. I for one favor new ideas, however loopy, to the old ideas of war/conflict/hatred.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 06:49:54 -0800

Now they're saying the baby's name is Eve. Ri-i-i-i-ght. This gets less believable by the minute.

By: flatlander

flatlander — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 07:40:05 -0800

"KLAATU BARADA NIKTOH".

By: rusty

rusty — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 07:50:15 -0800

I can't believe no one's said it yet. Where's Yoda when you need him?

By: yhbc

yhbc — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 07:58:10 -0800

Oh, all right. Begun this clone war has.

By: goethean

goethean — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 08:15:48 -0800

I'm Rael!

By: sgt.serenity

sgt.serenity — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 08:41:00 -0800

Raelians: Big in Montreal

By: mathowie

mathowie — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 08:44:38 -0800

hmm. The director doesn't even look like the same person in photos this week, maybe it's a clone.

By: Ron

Ron — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 09:15:39 -0800

I know my golf clubs are clones.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 09:49:18 -0800

"Isn't it rich Aren't we a pair Me here at last on the ground You in mid-air Send in the cloooones... "

By: briank

briank — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 10:07:52 -0800

Meanwhile, doesn't this guy claim that HE'S about to present at least a couple of clones sometime in the next couple of months?

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 11:14:29 -0800

Oh my god. Just saw the story on CNN. Expert testimony by Bill Nye. Well, he is the Science Guy.

By: edsousa

edsousa — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 11:21:06 -0800

This reminds me a bit of Arthur C. Clarke's 'Imperial Earth', where cloning of the leader is used to perpetuate the dynasty ruling over Titan.

By: anildash

anildash — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 11:21:23 -0800

Some more background on the Raelians from a little more than a year ago can be found here, here, and here.

By: davidmsc

davidmsc — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 21:29:28 -0800

Do I *have* to spell it out for everyone...? "And I, for one, welcome our new Rael-worshipping clone overlords." Sorry, but it had to be done.

By: sgt.serenity

sgt.serenity — Sat, 28 Dec 2002 02:57:04 -0800

feeeeed thee cloonneesss......................... let them know its christmastime this year !

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Sat, 28 Dec 2002 21:40:52 -0800

Seven billion people on this planet. We've populated all seven continents. There's even people who work regularly in Antarctica and cruises for people who have way too much money. Just two hundred years ago there was a whole new world to explore. Since then we've explored it. There's maybe five percent of this planet that hasn't been touched by human beings and that's just because no one can figure out how to turn that five percent into a tourist trap. This planet ain't gettin' any smaller, and now we got lunatics cloning even MORE people. If these weirdoes claim to have contact with aliens, you'd think they'd waste their time working on interstellar spaceflight so we could find some more elbow room. Alpha Centauri or bust!

By: davidmsc

davidmsc — Sat, 28 Dec 2002 21:54:19 -0800

I take it, then, that ZachsMind will very soon voluntarily remove himself from this planet as a gesture of his commitment to the belief that there are too many people...? I'm just kidding, Zach.

By: jpoulos

jpoulos — Sun, 29 Dec 2002 12:39:20 -0800

This planet ain't gettin' any smaller, and now we got lunatics cloning even MORE people. This isn't Star Wars: Episode II. We're not talking about cloning "farms" or factories. Human clones, if they happen, would still be born the old fashioned way--one at a time and only after a regular 9-month gestation period. This really isn't a very big leap from in vitro or other reproductive technologies that most of us are very comfortable with. Running around like it's freakin' War of the Worlds is going to delay by decades the positive advancements this technology offers.