Oh bugger. That was totally not what I was supposed to feel. Instead of being happy and jubilant and all, I'm tired, bored, and disappointed. Tired, probably because the gauntlet just finished. Bored, because I have nothing to do. Disappointed, probably because I had to go for a doctor's appointment right on the finish line. Which meant that I missed out on having fun with my friends. Yay.
But really, I think I've grown addicted to social interaction. Without it, I get tired, sad, and feel like burning stuff. Okay, I feel like burning stuff all the time, but it becomes more pronounced during my hours of solitude. In the past, I didn't give a crap about my schoolmates(with a few exceptions, of course), mainly because most of them were idiots, and also because they didn't give a damn about me either. That changed when I got to Secondary three. People finally listened to me. It's a great feeling, you know, knowing that you have a real voice. For the first time, I had influence, and it all came from being able to fit in. Something tells me that this was probably possible for me because everyone else went through the same early years as I did. But who's to question it(I am!)?
Anyway... today, I want to write about cloning. Like Boba Fett.
Yes, an endless supply of expendable labour.
Firstly, why clones? I mean, why not robots? Well, robots are difficult to build and maintain. They do not have the dexterity or swiftness of a trained human, and neither are they capable of dealing with new situations. This so-called "Artificial Intelligence", or AI, is limited. Clones, on the other hand, present a whole new realm of possibilities, allowing us the traverse the barriers of the need for the human touch. Also, clones don't necessarily have to have the poorer qualities of homo sapiens. Advances in genetic engineering will bring us to a level where we can eliminate the rebelliousness of clones, making them subservient and tame. They could be engineered have no preference for food, and be fed basic nutrients. Growing periods could be shortened, and innate abilities enhanced. Also, given that all the clones of a particular person will inherit the same skills, and require minimal training, we would save so much on education.
Imagine a workforce consisting of clones. Clones of those who were the best and the fittest. Imagine a factory where everyone had the same alertness and endurance, or an office where everyone is equally industrious and proactive. Of course, they would also all be the same person. Still, with that sort of efficiency, the productivity of every industry in the world would skyrocket. No more mess-ups and lawsuits to burden the process either.
So where does it leave the rest of us? At first glance, it would seem to be the most awesome thing that ever happened. As more and more industries are taken over by Boba Fetts, there will also be more people who are out of jobs. The efficiency of clones could no doubt sustain the "uncloned" ones. So there we go, we're now free to loaf around pointlessly, enjoying ourselves to the fullest degree.
However, that in itself demonstrates a few problems. One, people get bored easily, as I have already demonstrated. Two, people are idiots, in general. When idiots are bored... they do stupid things. Even though there is absolutely no logical reason to get out of the normal routine, they do it anyway. You can just imagine uncontrolled vandalism and riots and more. People running around, killing each other. It could(and probably would) get so bad that even the super-cloned police force can't handle it. They're stronger, smarter, and simply better, but they still can't fly or shoot webbing. There is only so much a police force can do. Simply put, the overwhelming force of bored people doing stupid things could very well lead us to a self-induced apocalypse.
Ah, and since our workforce is an independent population, meant for nothing but work, the resident population will have no need for education whatsoever. Every extra skill that isn't required for fundamental living will be optional to learn. And since people are becoming lazier and lazier every generation(we're a testament to that) the number of people actually going to take up carpentry would be reduced to squat zero. Arts are perhaps another issue, since cloned art... is much more efficient with a digital camera and printing machine. But my point is, every skill that a clone workforce can feasibly take over, becomes completely redundant for the rest of us.
Clones may go even further than working at an assembly line, or handling oil rigs. They could well move much closer to home. It's not that far off, to start having clones work as bank service people(whatever they're called). It won't be much different, except that they all look the same and they're probably going to be much faster. Shorter queues ftw. And food vendors, waiters, garbage disposal people, and perhaps even pilots and cab drivers. It seems all imaginable, and I suppose it wouldn't be too hard getting used to having every ice-cream man looking the same, but there's one service that clones may just provide that is perhaps the most disturbing.
We all already know(or not) about people who buy hyper-realistic dolls, put them in their houses, and pretend that they're their spouses or friends. These people have pretty much given up on real people as companions(and I don't blame them, frankly) and resort to having "pretend" mates. These mates are known as "love dolls"(google it, but don't hit "I'm feeling lucky" on images), and were initially intended as masturbation aids. You know, to simulate having sex. Their users see these dolls as better alternatives to real people. Their reasons include that the dolls never argue, and are never unfaithful. The dolls are completely and utterly theirs. Just a few weeks ago, I came across a forum thread indicating the implications of when people build very realistic robots that can easily pass off as a human being. Basically, the discussion was about whether a person could get married to a robot. However, it's slightly different here. Now, imagine being able to create a real human being, to serve the very same purpose as the dolls. You could design and create the perfect partner for yourself. But the creepy thing is, that eventually people will want specific partners. Tell me there hasn't been a time when you saw a beautiful person on the television and wish that they were yours, and you're going to hell because you're a liar. In the future, those wishes may come true for those whimsical enough to do it. Is that the wrong use of the word "whimsical"? Anyway, a person in the future would just go to www.celebrity-clones.com or something and order a freakin' clone of his fantasy. Knowing humans, this business is going to boom, and the person who dared to start asking celebrities for their DNA is going to be very, very rich. Come to that, if you think that you're a desirable enough person, sell your DNA to the company and get paid whenever someone buys your clone. That is, if you can stand knowing that your clone is going to get sexually abused in one way or another.
Initially, only a few, more privileged earthlings would be able to afford such a service, but eventually, it's going to become as popular as Nintendo. The dark side of this, is that for every person who orders a clone, who, bluntly put, will become a sex slave(that's infertile too), there is one less person putting his stuff into the gene pool. You see, this it all because of the way humans think. In fact, Shaun may be posting something about this in the near future. I'll give you the run-down:
The only purpose of a male's existence is to spread his DNA. This means that fundamentally, he only intends to impregnate as many females as he can. By impregnate, it actually means "have sexual intercourse and run away." It's an amazingly simple system. Due to human morals and the ability to think, this does not happen. However, conscience is but a thin veil hiding the instinct beneath it. I'm sorry, but I can't put this any other way than crudely. Guys just want sex. Everything else is too insignificant to be considered.
Then you ask, why do they bother getting studying hard and getting jobs, making money? That's because of how the female works. As with males, since fundamentally, all a species is meant to do is to reproduce, the female is geared toward selecting the best genes to keep the population healthy. Females identify the best mates by power, stability, and influence.
Now, because of the male's instinctive lust, a perfectly constructed, living, breathing mate that doesn't come with all the drama and pain of a real relationship, is very, very attractive. As mentioned above, all they want is sex, not caring about whether it really caused a conception or not, since instinct was geared that way. As for the female, she can get all the power and stability she wants from the extremely lucrative sources of income that the future makes available. With free sustenance from the surplus of hyper-efficient clone workers, why get a man? And thus, it cuts off the sequence before the reproduction actually happens.
To make a long story short, we're all gonna die. Yaay!
Yikes. I think I've gone on quite a bit too much on the whole pleasure industry thing. I actually intended to get into a more spiritual discussion at the end of it, but I think I'll save that for next post. Which, will probably be tomorrow. I'm so bored.
-Joe
*This post was written(or typed, whichever you want) on 13 November 2007, but was delayed because Shaun wanted to tell us about his adventure.
Edit: I just found a reason to watch The Golden Compass. There are Catholic groups claiming that it encourages atheism in kids. They're doing a real good job of making everyone want to watch it, just like they did with The Da Vinci Code. Whoohoo.
