FMBI

I don't think this would happen. Why would a clone get more rights than a child of a super-rich person, for example? I'm also not sure what the problem was with clones traveling to space... how does this negatively affect me/future generations? Well right now what you look like is essentially a random combination of your parents. Is your life meaningless because your characteristics are based on luck? Your parents already decide several factors that have large influences on your life (where you live, what sort of primary school you go to, your diet). Meaning in my life doesn't come from genetics, but instead from experiences and accomplishments, which genetic clones do not inherit. Because the super-rich could create very close copies of themselves through cloning which would, at least in theory, give them a great amount of control over their children's lives, and ensure that they didn't get a deadbeat kid who threw all their cash away. Also, my point with the planetary comment was that they could just get away from any problems, and not be forced to account for anything they did. The combination of nonhumanity due to their clone origins, and the distance from Earth, would likely result in an almost total lack of empathy with everyone else. As far as luck vs choice - I'm pretty much what I am because of luck and things I've done, that's true. And the things I've done are more important than luck, as well. But if you clone someone, and eliminate that luck, then they can't say "I'm different from my parents, and I can accomplish anything" - instead they will, in all likelihood, live merely as an extension of their ancestor's life. Free will would be diminished by the very nature of the people who would clone themselves in the first place - arrogant and determined to live on in some fashion or another. I suppose you could disagree with this, but I'm trying to think of the long-term sociological implications. Also, I realize I'm not addressing the possibility of cloning even being successful, but that's because biotechnology and nanotechnology have been advancing at such an exponential rate that there's no reason to believe it won't be both possible and perfected within 75-100 years.

The #1 (and potentially only needed) reason to avoid cloning is that it destroys the line we've drawn around humanity as distinct from every other species, and as only one species. If we start cloning, then, thanks to the miracle of libertarian feudalism, within a few hundred years we'll have an eternal overclass, descended from the present super-rich, living as virtual gods, while a massive underclass suffers in a hell of nonhumanity. The current inequalities and problems we face will be nothing compared to what we (or, rather, our descendants) will see then. And don't even think about what would happen when space travel got advanced enough for the super-rich clones to go to other planets, and, theoretically, stellar systems, leaving everyone else behind. Another very important reason is that, even though the clones would be the new aristocracy of the future world, they'd also be trapped in a hell of meaninglessness. What the fuck does your life matter if your "parents" decided what you would look like, what basic characteristics you would have, and so forth? Especially when those characteristics happen to be an exact copy of one of those "parents"? This, along with the inevitable cybernetic linkup, is probably the main reason I'm glad that I'll get to die sometime during the present century. I really don't want to see the entire world as we know it come apart, but I don't see any way to avoid it happening.

This is the official "can't get any more boring" thread! Post tomorrow's (or, if you're posting in the daytime, today's) anticipated highs and lows! If you aren't sure where the heck to get that information, this is a handy place to start. For me, it's : H 36 (2) / L 19 (-7) Dig in, everybody!

I swear, I get this in my e-mail every 2 weeks. Bluch.

And much of that oil used to belong to other countries until the Wahhabis pressured them into handing it over - it's not like they don't have influence in that area. AFAIK, there's no reason to believe that "militants", or even Saudi Arabia's overpayed-undertrained armed forces, wouldn't go after any oil wells in the region, regardless of the religion of the current inhabitants.

I just wish I had gotten a chance to see if there were any replies to my new link topic. 24 hour archive > Insta-del.

So you're mobilizing the base, rather than trying to convert undecideds. Gotcha. o_O edit @ Sam - Yes, but those new visitors aren't necessarily going to be making 20 posts a day. I guess it depends on how much you value those 20 posts, although I would say that anything which can at least keep a topic alive short of total derailment would be good. On the other hand, I'm kind of a spammy kind of guy myself, so whatever.

My only concern is that, despite the pure idiocy of the people you mentioned (with the exception of root), they're kind of vital to the survival of this forum. Imagining that people are going to start showing up here if you take down a few troublemakers seems to be rather naive to me, unless you're going to do some kind of re-launch of the forums, complete with in-game advertising in the larger zones - in which case we'll be flooded with TW newbs and the like. Which I don't think any of us would enjoy that much. So, er, if I may ask.. what's your plan to boost forum pop without killing the current base?

Link Link to the report is at the bottom of the summary page (didn't want to direct link, since it's 34 megs). Fun stuff.

After all the above posts, there are only two questions left to ask. #1 - Does anyone else think that this was the best opening post in ssforum history? #2 - Why isn't this topic locked?

!@#$%^&*, the sociological implications of bloodless war are going to torment me for the next 2 hours now. But like Dav said, that's pretty fricking impressive.

Far left with an infinitely skeptical and pragmatic streak.

Silly Astro. There's nothing we can do about the Wahhabis, because if we tried, Saudi Arabia's oil production would collapse, the Levant would go up in smoke, and Egypt would end up in a rehash of the Yemeni civil war. This is one case where it's better to pretend a problem doesn't exist. After all, to use an uplifting metaphor, if you're being chased by dogs and you've got a wound in your arm, you don't stop to bandage it up and get ripped to pieces, you keep going and hope you can figure something out eventually. That isn't to say we shouldn't get in bed with Syria and Iran, however. Iran's facing extremely serious economic problems, and we're in the best bargaining position we're ever going to get - if we sign some sort of arms deescalation agreement with them and sign good (for them) oil production deals, we could probably get them into the OIL PRODUCERS <3 AMERICA club without triggering the downfall of Saudi Arabia's government. Same, though slightly modified, with Syria - they're stuck between a rock and a hard place right now, with both Israel and their homegrown religious nuts pulling in opposite directions. If we give them a way out, they'll be heavily indebted to us, and we can finally resolve some of the problems we've ignored since before the Baghdad Pact.

Who are you kidding? If the Supreme Court goes anywhere near gay marriage, it'll cause a backlash so big that individual states, and a newly elected far-right president, will ban it and ignore or reverse the ruling. Gay marriage is never going to get anywhere in this country. Acceptance of "homosexual cohabitation" might get pretty widespread after a few decades, but actual legalization? Never.

Link Alternately, Link Well, I guess Bush decided that post-genocide [ahem, "ethnic cleansing"] Iraq was too darn boring, and he wants to get the Syrians involved. If we're lucky, then this could escalate to a small-scale war - and if we're double lucky, Syria could stop !@#$%^&*-footing around and invade Lebanon, thus provoking a fresh Arab-Israeli war! Woo-hoo! Hurrah for Bush's judgment, eh?

I'd say it's more kia than mia. Edit - Also, I know that if you can't even find the time to check new quotes you probably won't be able to do this at the moment, but could you purge some of the re!@#$%^&*ed quotes eventually? Right now, almost all the negative quotes are absolute bull!@#$%^&*, and about 75% of the new quotes added in the last two years are bull!@#$%^&* too - if you do carry out a purge, I'd recommend writing a program to delete anything added from Kn|ght's IP.

Why isn't 2pac banned yet? !@#$%^&*ing piece of bloody thread-derailing !@#$%^&*. In other news, hasn't this thread outlived its purpose? We've disagreed on whether men and women can have friendships without sexual / romantic attraction, we've disagreed on whether men and women have the same amount of sex drive, we've disagreed on whether women are into different stuff because of a differently directed sex drive or whether it's the cultural trappings of said stuff that accomplishes it.. There have been no definitive authorities cited as of yet on any of these matters, and it doesn't look like that's gonna change anytime soon. :\ Need some kind of reboot and/or split, IMO. Spoiler! --Click here to view--PS - Wow, this post is full of gibberish. o_O

That is the stupidest thing I've heard. My mother had her sixth pregnancy when she was in her forties and shes fine. Probabilities, my dear boy, probabilities. Just as it's possible to win big in Keno, but it's a stupid idea to play, so you can have healthy children in your 40s, although it's a stupid idea to try. Obviously it depends on the health of the mother, and Palin seems to be in rather good shape - but when you're "bringing a new life into the world", shouldn't you exercise some discretion, and ensure that your child(ren) will have the best shot at life from the start?* *No, I am not condoning eugenics, don't even bother to try accusing me of it.

ROFL.

It isn't "giving the benefit of the doubt" to someone if they slightly misspeak but their point is valid, IMO - it's simply honesty. And why shouldn't they criticize Palin for getting the general's name wrong? That was one of her biggest points in the debate, that he supposedly agreed with her and McCain - if she couldn't get that one right, then what could she get right? Edit - I assume that your post was referring strictly to the points mentioned on the BBC article, and not to ones found in other sources? Edit2 - It turns out I was right some time back when I said somewhere (dunno if it was on here) that Palin would dominate a McCain presidency so much that it would be irrelevant whether he survived or not. I loved the moment when she talked about taking over the legislative branch - woot, Executive's already got Justice in its pocket, let's go for a a clean sweep! And her continuing attempts to brush off any criticism of Cheney's record is certainly heartening, to say the least.

Should I mention that the site layout for that is identical to the old Buggering Hamsters page?

What would happen if X's and Ace's posts were reversed? Worth the 5 seconds it took me to delete the extra material. o_O

Astro, where have you been the last week and a half? The media was sucking him off for a while, yes, but lately they have actually been correcting statements after quoting McCain and Palin. And when a lazy media like ours goes that far, you know there's been a sea change.

Are you sure it isn't just because you're logging in and thereby changing the time it displays? I just checked that and it isn't doing anything to me.

Quick summary of my opinion: Biden won. Like Obama, he just kept pulling facts out to respond to the Palin/McCain bull!@#$%^&*. That might not carry as much of a quick buzz as Palin's "everyman" appeal, but over the last several weeks, we have seen a lot of people deserting the Republican party in disgust over McCain's disregard for the truth - I see no reason why it shouldn't be the same this time. My prediction is that McCain will come fairly near to closing the gap over the next several days, perhaps taking back North Carolina, Nevada, and Florida, but will fall behind again once people figure out what's going on. Opinions?