Down on the Animal Farm

This is an interesting article on people more interested in climbing the hill than they care if it’s safe to climb. The line that grabs my attention is this:

Just in case, Greely said, the committee recommended closely monitoring the mice's behavior and immediately killing any that display human-like
behavior.

Okay. See guys, it things like this that are going to get us in real trouble when the super mice get out of control and revolt. How can we expect them to trust us when we are on record as having recommended their deaths before they where even made. The only thing I can think is that when the revolt comes we move the bio-engineers to the front of the line, which should make the lawyers happy.

And here’s another choice one:

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office finally denied their application this year,ruling that the proposed invention was too human: Constitutional prohibitions against slavery prevents the patenting of people.

Newman and Rifkin were delighted, since they never intended to create the creature and instead wanted to use their application to protest what they see as science and commerce turning people into commodities.

Right. Never really planed to make one, eh? Sure.