Shouts From Down Under

Joyful progressive breakthroughs? Or omens of foreboding?

Are some things better left alone?

Atomic bombs. Nuclear energy. Genetic modification. Cross species breeding. Seedless crops. Invisibility. Cyborgs. 3D Printing. Patenting livestock...

http://www.slideshare.net/karanppt/patent-in-molecular-biology

15. Plant as Patentable Subject Matter US patent office did not allow patent for mutant of maize plant Board of Patent Appeals allowed patent of mutant maize
16. Patent on Higher Life: Animal US patent office allowed Patenting of Oncomouse. The claim was for genetically modified mouse susceptible to cancer disease that is useful for cancer research and drug development. 16 patents are granted on transgenic mice. Patents for transgenic pig, rabbit, sheep are also granted.
17. Patent on Human Genetic Material 1984, human cell line producing cancer-fighter proteins was isolated from the body of patient name ‘Moore’. Now, patents on methods to isolate human genetic material and also on proteins produced by human genetic material are allowed. Patent has been granted for producing foreign protein in transformed species of bacteria.

What about...

Regenerative medicine.

Do we really want the curse of living forever?

http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21600356-first-time-mammali...

Imagine for a minute a scene 100? 150 years from now. Perhaps even 25 years from now. People no longer grow old. Their organs are all stable, their growth maintained at an optimum condition, say, at the prime of people's lives. There are now massive fines for any activity that will cause degeneration, and all possible means of committing murder, or suicide, have been removed from this earth.

There aren't even any bridges to jump off anymore. Every angle has been covered whereby people may, or can, peacefully die of old age or end their lives.

Death is now considered illegal, or at the very least, unethical and a failure, against government policy - frowned upon.

What then? Would this be a wise scenario? And even if it was full of the arrogant wisdom of mankind (humankind whatever), would we really want to live hundreds of years? I feel worn out already, at only 46. Imagine if our skin, our sensory organs, everything about us, was repaired even before it began to deteriorate to any great degree.

We were eternally youngish. No accidents. No deaths. Imagine someone dying then. It would make international news. It would be a bigger story than Chernobyl. Bigger than Fukishima. Bigger than Flight MH370.

It would be a traumatic event and people would lose their jobs. Heads would roll, recriminations, shouting in boardrooms. A doctor somewhere deregistered, a company litigation case, heads shaking, and heads nodding, their suspicions of government corruption confirmed. There would be the same rot as now. Paranoia. Greed. Under the table deals. Grubby politicians. Poor masses.

The difference would be an agonising length of life.

This article is old but seems to be relevant, though potentially insulting the political commentary. Perhaps he had a point even so.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/22/elderly-hurry-up-die-japanese

No way. I don't want to live longer than my 70-100 odd years thanks. Not that I'm keen to die.
This brings to mind those movies that portray a character who lives for centuries. They end up half psycho from too much knowledge, their heads weary with the worlds problems, exhaustion bringing bitterness and a disillusioned cunning.

That's exactly how I see it would be if living a very long time becomes possible.

There are good things that come from new inventions, research, changing how we live and think.

But I feel strongly that some things should be left alone.

While I confess, I don't know the facts, I strongly disagree with the idea of companies such as Monsanto, or Microsoft being allowed to patent, or have exclusive, government supported control over things that should be the property of all mankind.

The fact that their research dollars have brought about that change is irrelevant. By patenting something living, for example, there is a wide open loop hole for corruption, for peoples basic right to live, earn a living, eat and be happy, to be taken away.

Is this already happening all over the globe, thanks to this delusion that we have to have a world order?

Fabians?

http://www.restoreaustralia.org.au/fabians-and-pm-gillard/

World Bank? Shadowy world powers behind the façade of democracy or the artificial front of socialism? Secret handshake religious groups? The Pope's real controllers hiding behind the church?

Whatever. Who has the right to control other people? Someone will always try. But it should be by choice, and by respect. Not by force. Especially not by stealth.

Is it that crazy to feel we have an individual right to live permanently on a parcel of land we can call our own, grow some food there for meat and vegetables, drink the water we collect, breath the air, enjoy the sun and wind, bare children and provide for them and all our family into old age, have the necessary jobs or other means to pay our bills, get along in society in a quiet, peaceable and enjoyable manner?

Were there never truer words spoken, that those by Jesus?

"For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

The happiness and peace that is real, ironically, comes freely. It's right back there at home where each one of us were born. It's where we learned the basics of obedience, love, respect and overcoming our failures.

There are many who think they are wise, that have money, education, power, influence and can do many fantastic and even good things.
But will they ever have real peace and contentment, not only in their physical lives, but in their hearts?

It's not money. It's the love of the function of bypassing the lessons we should learn in life, about how to get on with our fellow human.
Who are we really kidding though?

We'd be better off leaving it alone. Sweating in labour, by choice, for our own path of destiny, reaps great rewards, far more than a delusion that easy riches seem to provide.

If people who control this world thought on this more, life would be a lot more pleasant. For them, and everyone.

Sparky