Just Thinkin’ -
A well-known footballer recently announced that his beloved dog had died. Having buried the lead, he continued stating that his dog had been successfully cloned. Can we do that? Who knew? Not me. It does seem there is something unnatural about all this. Now, I’ve been spooky about such things since I saw “The Munny” as the Midnight Preview at the Time Theatre in Stigler. I went home in a terrified sprint, racing from streetlight to streetlight.
Is cloning progress? I suppose progress at times has a supernatural tint to it. I remember in the late 1940s when my hometown citizens were discussing adding fluoride to the city’s drinking water. To a 10-year-old boy this sounded like voodoo. You put stuff into the drinking water and it will make my teeth healthier. Today I credit Stigler’s decision to be the reason my teeth are sound.
A cloned pet. A new puppy. Guess it could be the foundation for a study looking into the “nature vs. nurture” debate. In a few years, how much the pup’s behavior will be like the original pet and how much will be unique unto itself.
In 1996 in Scotland, a sheep named Dolly was the first successful clone of a mammal. Yes, she was named after Dolly Parton. Who said we Scots don’t have a sense of humor?
Dolly lived to be 6 and had several lambs the oldfashioned way.
I read that today there is considerable interest in cloning the Wooly Mammoth. Bringing back an extinct species. It seems like not long ago I saw a wildly popular movie with this theme.
It does seem that cloning mammals has brought us to a moral doorstep. Morality. As the Brits like to say, “That is one sticky wicket.”
What about drones? Military drones. It has long been known that the more we could depersonalize killing in warfare the more effectively it could be done. It is hard to depersonalize killing more than we have done with drone technology.
Drones as weapons of war, not drones that make us wonder about privacy issues. The drones that allow a young soldier to report to a base in the American heartland, sit in front of a computer screen, push a button on a mouse as they have done in thousands of games, kill people in say the Middle East, and return to their home to have dinner with the wife and kids. Sanitized killing both emotionally and physically.
We are no longer using rocks or sharp sticks, no clubs or spears, no swords or bayonets, no rifles or cannons, no planes to kill our enemies. We no longer must wash away the splatters of blood at days end.
It is cold outside here. The squirrels and rabbits played, interacting without observable territorial disputes. Both were feasting on bird seeds that spilled to the ground as the birds flocked around the recently filled feeder. My illusion of a serene and collaborative environment faded as a large, overweight, orange-haired cat tiptoed along the porch rail, then sat.
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought but I do know that World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. – Albert Einstein
