Vexen

I really worked hard to keep my rep neutral. Now, certain people or a person decided to dislike my comments unfairly. It was deliberate as it was done just after I posted an undeniable comment that must have affected some evangelical(s). These people cannot take criticism and resort to bad tactics.

Help

Absolutely not.

Dude?

Okay.

What about: the start of cellular development of a human being?

Why make it personal? Maybe it was something you said.

Somebody went to both of my posts on separate discussions and decided to pick me out from everyone else and dislike my posts.

Thanks guys. I lost everything I worked so hard for in these few days.

Except the math works when trying to figure out what happened before a human birth, which would seem to erase any absurdity in assigning birth as the starting point for human life.

You know what I mean. I'm using an analogy.

Let's just agree that fertilization is the start of human development.

In fact it is a huge deal - regardless of the underlying morality and ethical questions - the researchers involved will spend a large percentage of their time and budget on obtaining and maintaining permissions from research ethics committees etc.

Exactly, it is ethical to kill animals for experiments. At the university I attend, undergraduates kill dozens of animals for dissection purposes.

Btw,

Why are you people ruining my reputation? I don't do that. If you can't argue a statement, don't resort to those types of tactics.

In fact it is a huge deal - regardless of the underlying morality and ethical questions - the researchers involved will spend a large percentage of their time and budget on obtaining and maintaining permissions from research ethics committees etc.

Exactly, it is ethical to kill animals for experiments. At the university I attend, undergraduates kill dozens of animals for dissection purposes.

Btw,

Why are you people ruining my reputation? I don't do that. If you can't argue a statement, don't resort to those types of tactics.

It seems my reputation is at stake. My reputation is -2. Somebody doesn't like me.

I nearly included the HHGG as pre-figuring the iphone

 

I agree with your comment - but my post was in response to a comment saying "Almost everyone 100 years ago would have never imagined" - imagined being the concept I was zeroed in upon.

 

Individual works of fiction are very poor for predicting what will be the technology of the future - as you say most of the examples normally given are those picked because they were successful. But the general trend and topic of fiction does show what society at large is focussed upon; as an anecdote I recall my father noticing that fiction for children nowadays has a distinctly retrogressive, mystical, and nostalgic air whereas the books/comics/films of his youth were almost entirely forward looking and space/technology based. Harry Potter has ousted Dan Dare.

 

I concede. I should choose my words more carefully.

But I'm talking about scientists/inventors trying to go against the convention.

it's like people saying that the start of the universe is a continuum. It doesn't really start at the big bang. The start of inflation could have been the start of the universe. Or when the average temperature reached 1000 degree Celsius. This is seems absurd.

 

This means every miscarriage needs to be investigated by the police to determine if the mother is guilty of murder. Who pays for this?

A natural death should not be investigated as a crime.

The basis for my argument is that a fertilized egg (totipotent cell) is the cell that gives rise to all humans

. An egg or a sperm will not spontaneously develop. Thus, the start of human life occurs at fertilization.

To me it seems like at that point is when the process of life begins.

https://www.princeton.edu/~prolife/articles/embryoquotes2.html

That's the point, though — it took 100 years of development for such things to happen. There was no serious "let's go to the moon" talk until after ballistic missiles had been developed. Genetic engineering wasn't thought of because DNA hadn't been discovered. The iPhone and the internet required the development of quantum mechanics.

 

What you call bad criticism I call a more realistic assessment of the obstacles and our current accomplishments. Nobody here has claimed that terraforming will never fly.

Agreed

Never!

 

(I did study for a Masters degree in my 40s but somehow managed to avoid getting the qualification despite getting very good marks in all the exams and course work ...)

Why? My destination is research.

I don't have to:

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence", Carl Sagan.

If you want to claim that an alien species travelled millions of light years just to probe a farmer, produce crop circles or something like that, fine. But, it's your reputation at stake.

Yah, hard time to find sarcasm there. On terraforming, considering that we have a hard time to influence climate (and other global things) in a way that we want, despite having all our resources right here, I find it hard to imagine that we are going to do it successfully and in a sustainable way off-planet.

 

Heck, we did not even successfully establish a sustainable closed microenvironment on Earth (if the biosphere experiments are any indication).

Almost everyone 100 years ago would have never imagined the iPhone, space travel, genetic engineering, antibiotics,and Internet.

You just another one of those people. The Wright brothers faced adversity from the negative people who spent their lives doing nothing but bad critism.

Zoologists kill animals all the time during experiments. It's no big deal.

Still doing my undergraduate. I'm hoping to do my postgraduate in genetics.

Who is doing their postgraduate?

Opinion:

Aliens have never visited earth.

Okay. My argument is:

People should make the definition of the start of human life as soon as fertilization occurs.

"In order to prevent this process, lymphocytes possess an intrinsic quality-control mechanism. This machinery shuts down the lymphocytes' ability to expand, if the trigger for the expansion turns out to be the body's own protein. T-cell anergy can arise when the T-cell does not receive appropriate co-stimulation in the presence of specific antigen recognition. B-cell anergy can be induced by exposure to soluble circulating antigen, and is often marked by a downregulation of surface IgM expression and partial blockade of intracellular signaling pathways."

"In order to prevent this process, lymphocytes possess an intrinsic quality-control mechanism. This machinery shuts down the lymphocytes' ability to expand, if the trigger for the expansion turns out to be the body's own protein. T-cell anergy can arise when the T-cell does not receive appropriate co-stimulation in the presence of specific antigen recognition. B-cell anergy can be induced by exposure to soluble circulating antigen, and is often marked by a downregulation of surface IgM expression and partial blockade of intracellular signaling pathways."

You can do it in the reverse order. Why do more work than you have to?

 

In any case telomere extension does occur naturally in some cell types(normally anyways...) as well. You probably haven't found it unpleasant so far.

This is why I enjoy forums. You learn new stuff.

I don't know what you're reading? People have given historical examples of famous productive people using anonymous names on this thread. People like me have also said why it's an advantage to have anonymous names as I gives us freedom of speech without the fear of being bullied in our personal lives. If you wanted a more specific discussion you should have a more specific opening. All you've done on this post is ask two very vague open questions. You haven't put forward your position or asked anyone to elaborate of their posts. What you should be saying is:

 

I shouldn't expect much from a discussion that I put no effort in and don't develop.

 

We are not mind readers. You have to put at least a little effort in your own thread if you want it to develop.

 

I have articulated my question properly.

I'm sure you people must have come across this sort of behaviour. Does it not fascinate anyone?

I hope it is true, because my life is not that great at the moment. I would like to wake up as a super, wealthy and handsome billionaire superstar.

You people are very lucky to live in a liberal, wealthy and powerful nation like the USA. You guys should have the best stories about how you lost your faith as the USA is highly religious and knowledge is easily accessible.

Do I have to put a smiley face if I'm being sarcastic?

There, I changed my original post.

I am surprised a question like that is allowed on a science forum.

Why is this question one you "could never ask"?

Personally, I never met a self proclaimed atheist. As far as I know, everyone I ever met is a theist.

You can lengthen telomeres.

Why clone and then extend telomere? It sounds unpleasant.