|
|
|
|
|
This makes sense:
It's infinitely better to work with nature than to work against it - just as it's better to work with the grain of the wood. -- Dame Jill Knight
Then again, so does this:
There is nothing that great about nature. Nature is full of diseases; it's full of failures. Almost every organism that's born on the planet fails - doesn't make it to reproductive age. Humans are rather better than that - most of us do make it to reproductive age. In fact many of us reproduce. That's a great achievement, and that's an artificial achievement. If you leave it to nature, all you get is a lot of dead babies. -- Oliver Morton
Hmmmm.
Posted by Ted at June 6, 2005 04:49 AMWell, that Oliver Morton guy's a real ray of sunshine huh?
Posted by: shank at June 6, 2005 08:22 AMHow about this:
It is best to toward life and health, whichever way that goes.
Ollie sounds like he's auditioning to be Kevorkian's chaplain.
Posted by: Ted at June 6, 2005 09:35 AMI bet Oliver Morton is would be big on human enhancement, or cyborgs y'know, then we'd be ultra perfect, screw that bag nature.
It's a process as medical knowlege expands. My dad got a new knee last month, fifty years ago that kind of joint replacement was science fiction. We've moved towards the scary future in such tiny incremental steps that Shelley's Frankenstein happens every day in operating rooms all over the world. In her day it was horror fiction. Add better nutrition and biochemistry, and I'd argue that compared to a century ago we already *are* ultra-perfect.
Medical ethical debate isn't a new thing. It happened with germ theory, it happened with blood transfusions and organ transplants. Yesterday's crime against nature becomes tomorrow's commonplace.
Posted by: Ted at June 6, 2005 07:44 PMAh yes, we may live longer, we may have cushier lifestyles, but I ask you, are we happy? Has our science crushed crime, poverty and racism? And how many extra fellow-humans can we kill in one fell swoop with our ultra-perfect science?
Sure I may be happier as I sit watching easily accessible porn and eating nachos, and if I live to 100 I'll probably be alive in some nursing home screaming obscenities and shitting my pants, all because science kept me alive. :)
Posted by: Oorgo at June 7, 2005 11:28 AMNow who's being a ray of sunshine? ;)
Posted by: Ted at June 7, 2005 11:31 AMlol! I never claimed to be an optimist.
Posted by: Oorgo at June 7, 2005 01:37 PM