The art of interference
Would but it were.
Whilst technically you own your fingerprints, and in a similar way, have sole possession of your DNA, the truth is that you can’t copyright it.
There’s absolutely not much that you can do to stop someone using your DNA.
Sure, you can create artwork out of them and copyright that, but that’s just an image, not the thing itself.
I don’t know why I find this so unnerving…
I would be just as happy for my parents to hold my copyrighted parts, since technically they were responsible for creating them.
Still, not an ideal solution… and I doubt that any government would pass a law to rectify the problem – it would be a major barrier to their beloved biometric ID – no, they’d rather let live in a world where it’s quite possible that someone could be cloned without their knowledge, or consent.
I suppose there is a silver lining though – My massive army of [TomCruise–MikeTyson] hybrids (they’re vicious, and they don’t stop) will be conquering a town near you soon.
Todays rather contrived question therefore, is, ‘you are being attacked by my armies, which celebrity hybrid will you use to defend yourself?
And remember, you can’t use the [ColinFarrell–RikiLake] hybrids, they’re banned outright, the way in which they kill is just too unpleasant.
Is there anything you’re afraid someone might DO with your DNA? I mean… what, you wanna copyright your ear? Your nose? One of the wrinkles on one of your knuckles? :\
There’s plenty you can do with someones DNA if you’re inclined to do so… For example, the law currently permits you to take a sample of someones DNA to leave at a crime scene – effectively framing you.
Similarly, there’s nothing legally wrong in sampling someones DNA and modifying a virus to be specific towards it.
Then there’s the problem of likeness… at the moment, Hollywodd stars and such can copyright their likeness. However, this in turn is pretty much encoded in DNA, so if you can’t copyright that, you probably won’t be able to copyright the likeness (unless you set a prescedent basis for it… Eg. ‘I was here first’)
OK, there’s not that much that can be done right now, or at least not that much of use.
But I think that’s a short-sighted view, isn’t it better to be prepared in case some smartypants comes up with something for your genes?
I’m not too worried about what can happen now, more that I’m worried that if this isn’t thought about it could lead to some interesting conundrums.
Isn’t the problem solved if you have no enemies?
All problems are solved if you have no enemies… except for what to watch on television, that problem will persist until we’re all gone.
I don’t understand why people get so worked up over cloning. If someone were to clone me without my consent, that’d definitely be weird, but it’d hardly provoke an existential crisis.
Perhaps in our modern secular world, where the concept of the soul is no longer taken as seriously as it once was, we have latched upon DNA as the mystical source of personal individuality. Or maybe it’s just that we’ve seen too many bad movies where cloning an individual results in a perfect copy complete with mustache. From the people who fear it to the people who believe it can return their dead children to life, people seem to be giving human cloning a lot more credit than it deserves.
Getting back to the subject at hand, I’d choose Bruce Lee/Keith Richards clones. Strength and durability.
Bruce/Keith… staggers as fast as lightning… inbuilt toxicological defence… legendary status…
Could be in for some trouble with that one.
…we have latched upon DNA as the mystical source of personal individuality…
I read a book recently that had this as one of the central theses, actually. It was actually not a very good book, and I forget the title. He’d written it in a way that was confusing to non-biologists, with a bit of a sensationalist tone, so that this one fellow I know read it and came to believe that genes didn’t exist at all: nurture wins out huge! Which is in no way what the book was trying to convey, it just shows how poorly written it was.
But the thesis was good.
Hmmm, I’d have to say Samuel L. Jackson/Bruce Willis/Bruce Campbell clones. The only thing I’d have to worry about then would be a clone uprising…
That and maintaining a supply line of clean white vests.
The mind reels with the available options. Perhaps a Tesla/Oppenheimer hybrid if we’re going for sheer insane retaliation ability.
I would prefer to go with the far more entertaining Karl/Groucho Marx or Lenin/Lennon hybrids.
If we are allowed to simply genetically modify an existing individual, I’ll take a 50-foot tall Leo Tolstoy.
i wouldn’t want to be the person trying to control one Tesla/Oppenheimer hybrid, let alone a squadron of them… like herding positively charged cats.
I’d let anyone who wanted to clone me, so long as they give me a clone of myself to have (his age accelerated so he’s old enough to get a job). Then me and myself would be a force to be reckoned with! It’s the perfect solution to my paradoxical twin problems of being lonely but also hating all other people.
If I was cloned, the world would explode under the shear pressure that my greatness would exert.
Can you imagine how great, how far to great, your life would be if there was another me?
My massive ego would black out the sun and the stars.
Seriously, this question raises the "nature, nuture" debate.
I go 50/50 either way, but I’m often amused by ppl’s justifications either way.
Hmmm, celebrity mixed clones?
Sun Tzu and Scarlett Johansson.
Sex, Strategy, Wisdom and Sex.
I’d make sure I was on the losing side. I’d be at the front line, waving a king sized white sheet around.
Assuming we get the Scarlett looks and features.
i think there are more factors than nature and nurture
Wait… like what? I’ve always thought of the two sides of nature-vs-nurture as rather all encompassing. What falls outside of them?
Wait… like what? I’ve always thought of the two sides of nature-vs-nurture as rather all encompassing. What falls outside of them?
Oprah.
i’m not exactly sure what, but i’ve never encountered a pair of twins with the exact same personality or tastes (maybe it’s just sheer force of will?)
That’s Epigenetics. I saw it on Nova. (Same place I heard about Emergent Complexity.)
oh, aw, damn
Epigenetics are actually one of the most fascinating things in cellular and molecular biology. Did you know that there was a whole generation of children born in Denmark after WWII that had wacky, bizarre congenital diseases, never seen before? The only common factor was that all of their mothers had been pregnant with them at the time of some bombing or other, in a really stressful situation. Epigenetic silencing of certain genes, in responce to the stress-environment, is what caused the diseases! But I still think of that as environment, or heredity. I mean, you can never have JUST nature or JUST nurture causing a particular trait: it’s always going to be a mixture of the two, an interaction of the two.
it’s very fascinating
but i suppose i was kind of searching for something like a soul. the idea that we’re driven solely by the chance we were born where and to whom we were born is icky
I physically snorted at the image itself. Very amusing.
Stephen Hawking/Chuck Norris/Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones style, obviously).
Brains and arse kicking. With a little bit of sexy on the side. I might have to fiddle with the ratio a bit, though. Not a complete three way split, you see.
Doh! I missed a very good documentary abot Mr Hawking on the BBC last night… despite leaving myself several reminders.
I could make a terrible joke about the mobile division, but I think I’m going to avoid it… just.
From what I’ve heard, you just can’t go wrong with a Norris hybrid either.
that would be awesome
How about Schwarzenegger/Jesus?
"I’ll be back!"
Good but may have a tendancy to try to lead the masses instead of focussing on the destruction at hand.
Russell Crowe/Paris Hilton … if he didn’t kill you with a swift blow of a telephone to the back of the head, she’d kill you with stupid.
R.O.T.F.L.M.M.F.A.O
Sorry, as an ex-con that one was kinda extra-funny.
And slightly depressing, having not thought to do so myself back in the day.
gaa, if my parents owned my "copyrighted parts" they would have sold them long ago to the highest bidder. in fact, they would have been glad to give them away.
Speaking in a completely serious way, there will have to be some sort of legal protection for our DNA. It might be something along the line of the copyright used for computer code (hehe, line, code… pun intended) because it may eventually, pretty soon, be possible to replicate DNA relatively cheaply.
You know, it’s actually already possible to replicate DNA (relatively) cheaply. The expensive part is doing anything with it. The advent of PCR technology changed a lot of things.
Roo’s not wrong, you could probably get everything you need to do it for under a few hundred dollars, probably less if you are willing to improvise for the sake of cost… It even comes with an instruction booklet (glad my degree can be reduced to a ‘booklet’).
@Ben, regarding your concerns about being cloned, I have the same thoughts. If I am cloned, Id cause an ego-black hole. It would not be pretty. People’s heads would explode. There is only so much room for awesomeness and it all taken up by already existing people.