{"id":126,"date":"2008-05-11T04:50:24","date_gmt":"2008-05-11T04:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2008\/05\/11\/unlimited_possibilities\/"},"modified":"2008-05-11T04:50:24","modified_gmt":"2008-05-11T04:50:24","slug":"unlimited_possibilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2008\/05\/11\/unlimited_possibilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlimited possibilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of days ago I was talking with a friend about the graphic novel (no, not<\/em> the ‘comic book’) _”Watchmen”:http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Watchmen-Alan-Moore\/dp\/0930289234 _. In this story there is a character who at one stage is discorporated, yet somehow manages to reincarnate himself as a being closer to the angels than the apes.<\/p>\n

\nThis Dr Manhattan<\/a> is a nuclear physicist \u2014 and a pawn of the US government. He has the ability to create duplicates of himself which can function independently of each other. The full implications of this become apparent when after an intimate moment with his girlfriend he goes back to the lab … and recombines with ‘himself’ who has been doing rather different sorts of experiments the whole time.<\/p>\n

\nThe thought sends a tingle down my spine. In the absence of an ‘intrinsic field’ deus ex machina, this is the best argument I’ve ever seen for human cloning (previous arguments on NN about what to do with excess bioinformaticians notwithstanding). I want a clone of myself. And I want the ability to imprint and transfer memories and experience.<\/p>\n

\nImagine.<\/p>\n

\nI think I need three of me. One to work in the lab, one to write and do analysis and one to be a father\/husband\/social butterfly. At around 3 in the morning we’d all plug into the Neural Equalizer(TM) and synchronize our minds. The benefits – at an individual level – would be immeasurable. At a societal level imagine the progress we’d make. People would become essentially immortal, untiring \u2014 complete with ‘off-site’ backups.<\/p>\n

\nAll I have to do now is persuade the Wellcome to fund my research. I will of course be asking for volunteers to be experimental subjects, and as I can already see you rushing forward, I’d like you all to form an orderly queue behind Maxine. <\/p>\n

\nThank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of days ago I was talking with a friend about the graphic novel (no, not the ‘comic book’) _”Watchmen”:http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Watchmen-Alan-Moore\/dp\/0930289234 _. In this story there is a character who at one stage is discorporated, yet somehow manages to reincarnate … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}