Page 1 of 1 [ 15 posts ] 

techstepgenr8tion
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Feb 2005
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 24,150
Location: 28th Path of Tzaddi

17 Jan 2010, 11:19 pm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34881174/ns ... nnovation/

I think the manly endeavors of shooting and field-dressing our game may be gone for good one of these days if this article is correct (even venison). It'll be interesting to see though what else this technology turns into, I'm sure there will be human tissue grown for burn centers and faster repair for traumatic injury to muscle tissue will just be scratching the surface.


_________________
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” - James Baldwin


Sand
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Age: 98
Gender: Male
Posts: 11,484
Location: Finland

18 Jan 2010, 12:02 am

techstepgenr8tion wrote:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34881174/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/

I think the manly endeavors of shooting and field-dressing our game may be gone for good one of these days if this article is correct (even venison). It'll be interesting to see though what else this technology turns into, I'm sure there will be human tissue grown for burn centers and faster repair for traumatic injury to muscle tissue will just be scratching the surface.


If the technique works out it should alleviate any morality about eating meat and the search for other exotic types of flesh could lead to all sorts of other flesh being consumed. No reason why human flesh should be excluded.



techstepgenr8tion
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Feb 2005
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 24,150
Location: 28th Path of Tzaddi

18 Jan 2010, 12:18 am

Sand wrote:
If the technique works out it should alleviate any morality about eating meat and the search for other exotic types of flesh could lead to all sorts of other flesh being consumed. No reason why human flesh should be excluded.


I don't know what the laws are on cannibalism but I had the thought a year ago that you'd see some new place put on by a rather cynical entrepreneur who'd decide to start a Hannibal themed restaurant; ultra high-class, ultra-expensive, where they would dole out very small servings as such by whatever six-star chefs who they could find willing to do it. For a place like that of course - bad press is good press. This technology may of course take that from incredibly expensive and detrimental to emergency rooms and put it in the realm of financially feasible.

I think what I would be more optimistic about though is a scenario where we can do something - many many technological links down the line - similar to the food replicators in Star Trek. Knowing how to make and program those would of course give us something that could be very much life saving in terms of, lets say, if some apocalyptic natural disaster took place, because it would help to keep food from being the sort of need that would have us going out and killing each other. Making similar forward paces in energy production would also be magnificent.


_________________
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” - James Baldwin


Sand
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Age: 98
Gender: Male
Posts: 11,484
Location: Finland

18 Jan 2010, 12:43 am

techstepgenr8tion wrote:
Sand wrote:
If the technique works out it should alleviate any morality about eating meat and the search for other exotic types of flesh could lead to all sorts of other flesh being consumed. No reason why human flesh should be excluded.


I don't know what the laws are on cannibalism but I had the thought a year ago that you'd see some new place put on by a rather cynical entrepreneur who'd decide to start a Hannibal themed restaurant; ultra high-class, ultra-expensive, where they would dole out very small servings as such by whatever six-star chefs who they could find willing to do it. For a place like that of course - bad press is good press. This technology may of course take that from incredibly expensive and detrimental to emergency rooms and put it in the realm of financially feasible.

I think what I would be more optimistic about though is a scenario where we can do something - many many technological links down the line - similar to the food replicators in Star Trek. Knowing how to make and program those would of course give us something that could be very much life saving in terms of, lets say, if some apocalyptic natural disaster took place, because it would help to keep food from being the sort of need that would have us going out and killing each other. Making similar forward paces in energy production would also be magnificent.


As long as there is no consciousness involved nor suffering, any kind of meat might be acceptable. Once the prejudices are removed other strange practices could become fashionable. Hospitals, after all, are always in dire straits to pay their expenses and no doubt there are large quantities of usable human flesh discarded from amputations etc. that could easily be transferred to the lunch room where a nicely broiled human arm or leg could tempt the appetite of anyone broad minded enough accept that flesh, after all, is mere flesh. Strict regulations on diseases would have to be enforced but recent news on how the meat industry processes it's product indicates there is a good deal of leeway on that. I'm not sure how tumors or cancers would fare in this process but it should be looked into. I'm sure the health insurance companies would be delighted to share in the profits.



techstepgenr8tion
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Feb 2005
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 24,150
Location: 28th Path of Tzaddi

18 Jan 2010, 1:01 am

The most dangerous stuff apparently sits on nervous tissue.

Ethically speaking though, there should never be a situation where a person didn't know what they were eating.


_________________
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” - James Baldwin


Sand
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Age: 98
Gender: Male
Posts: 11,484
Location: Finland

18 Jan 2010, 1:20 am

techstepgenr8tion wrote:
The most dangerous stuff apparently sits on nervous tissue.

Ethically speaking though, there should never be a situation where a person didn't know what they were eating.


There's this old saying about laws and sausages.



Magnus
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 24 Jul 2008
Age: 49
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,372
Location: Claremont, California

18 Jan 2010, 1:45 am

Interesting...

I wonder if Muslims would eat this.


_________________
As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other.

-Pythagoras


Friskeygirl
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Jun 2009
Age: 39
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,865

18 Jan 2010, 3:12 am

Wendy meat might be interesting, it refers to vat-grown human meat that was featured in Rudy Rucker's Wares novels.



techstepgenr8tion
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Feb 2005
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 24,150
Location: 28th Path of Tzaddi

18 Jan 2010, 3:25 am

Science fiction is also full of grim jokes about this kind of thing. With technology though we just have to remember that we decide how its used, not the other way around.


_________________
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” - James Baldwin


Sand
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Age: 98
Gender: Male
Posts: 11,484
Location: Finland

18 Jan 2010, 5:27 am

Well, perhaps a hospital is the wrong place to encourage consumption of normally discarded flesh. It could easily turn into a medical version of Sweeney Todd and one would have second thoughts of being operated on by a hungry surgeon near dinnertime as he might be tempted to slice off a but too much to fry and consume with sliced onion and a piece of pickle in an impromptu sandwich.

Pohl and Kornbluth wrote a novel years ago, "The Space Merchants" where a huge lump of chicken flesh (known as chicken little) was harvested regularly for meat consumption.
.



techstepgenr8tion
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Feb 2005
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 24,150
Location: 28th Path of Tzaddi

18 Jan 2010, 9:01 pm

Sand wrote:
Pohl and Kornbluth wrote a novel years ago, "The Space Merchants" where a huge lump of chicken flesh (known as chicken little) was harvested regularly for meat consumption.
.


Mmmm, I'd imagine that growing on a roticery, looking a bit like a spool of shishtawarma. Perhaps one day no Lebanese takeout will be without one.


_________________
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” - James Baldwin


phil777
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 May 2008
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Posts: 4,825
Location: Montreal, Québec

18 Jan 2010, 10:39 pm

I'd need to dig for it, but i'm quite sure the USA army is already researching how to regrow tissues and organs, and even bones. I reckon they already know how to regrow at least a finger's worth. <.< But yeah, can't remember where i read that =.= .



TheOddGoat
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 19 Oct 2009
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Posts: 516

21 Jan 2010, 1:54 pm

techstepgenr8tion wrote:
With technology though we just have to remember that we decide how its used, not the other way around.


What about a mind control robot with full self awareness?



Asmodeus
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 24 Feb 2009
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,520

21 Jan 2010, 3:35 pm

We could eat soylent green without the ethical issues. 8)



techstepgenr8tion
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Feb 2005
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 24,150
Location: 28th Path of Tzaddi

21 Jan 2010, 9:46 pm

TheOddGoat wrote:
What about a mind control robot with full self awareness?

So they could enjoy the dilemma of the human condition with us? I guess whatever floats people's boats - though I really don't know if they'll ever truly be able to tell what 'consciousness' is or find an empirical way of measuring when its achieved or established (and that point I suppose the scarier thing will be how many people they actually find who never had it to begin with...).


_________________
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” - James Baldwin