Gattaca is the semi-dystopian vision of our future if we just walk blindly down this path without legislating it properly in advance.

For those who haven’t seen the movie: Rich people start paying for perfect “designer babies”. A person’s genetic information becomes their whole identity; businesses only hire employees with the most genetic predisposition towards being good at the job, while regular people conceived “the old-fashioned way” get McJobs. Even wearing glasses is treated like a crippling disability that immediately and visibly marks someone as “inferior”.

It is extremely important that we pass laws to ensure that genetic engineering doesn’t create a new caste system.

Does anyone have a link to the actual Russian text?

They’ve already moved on to ideas; ask Minnesota.

Historically, it’s:

• People who can be visually identified as different

• Then people who take political stands openly against them

• Then people whose neighbors/coworkers are snitches

Has anyone actually confirmed that those guys are actually ICE? Because they look like I could pretend to be ICE and get away with it.

Well, they’re DEVELOPING them. They’re not MAKING them yet.

https://www.hydrogeninsight.com/transport/hyundai-developing-hydrogen-powered-military-tank-with-rapid-acceleration-quiet-driving-and-stealth-features/2-1-1728622?zephr_sso_ott=ZTJkra

“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.”

― Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

Does this mean that Musk’s address is stored on Fastest Lab’s servers?

Edit: nvm I found his address

Hypothetically, we could terraform Venus. At the very least, it shares a lot of the issues that we’re trying to fix on Earth, just dialled up to 11 - its main problems are that it’s way too hot, the atmosphere has way too much carbon in it (96.5% vs Earth’s 0.04%), and the atmosphere has way too much sulfur (0.015% vs Earth’s 0.00000002%, making the atmosphere highly acidic). So if for example scientists had an idea for causing a chain reaction in a planetary atmosphere that rapidly sequestered all atmospheric carbon but were worried about unknown strength or side effects, instead of testing it on Earth where it could kill us all, they could test it on Venus where any failures would have no serious consequences. And if it worked, not only would it mean that we fix climate change on Earth but we partially terraform Venus into the bargain.

Venus has roughly similar gravity to Earth and has a ferrous core which could hypothetically be turned molten (and therefore ferromagnetic) to provide the same kind of magnetosphere that Earth’s core does. Mars has neither of these things and would therefore never be able to sustain human life naturally - Venus potentially could. On Mars, the atmosphere is just one of many obstacles. On Venus it’s THE obstacle. Solve the atmosphere, you solve Venus.

If you have opportunity to do good you have a moral obligation to seize it. Fear of getting it wrong is not an excuse to do nothing.

“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents*, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

–Matthew 25:14-30

• A talent was a monetary unit worth about twenty years’ wages for a laborer

I repeat: kidnapping?

Well everyone, even “normies”, accepts that “hangry” is a thing. So it really shouldn’t be surprising that our eating habits are so directly related to our mood and state of mind.

My understanding is that we still don’t know what it IS, but we now have corroboration that it EXISTS and roughly what it WEIGHS.

No, catholics (generally) believe that worldly goals are accomplished by worldly methods. Worshipping god isn’t intended to accomplish anything in this life: it’s intended to secure a place in heaven.

Mind you, I’m atheist; I’m not saying it actually DOES secure a place in heaven. I’m just pointing out that for genuine believers, prayer is not intended, primarily, to accomplish worldly ends. It sometimes INCLUDES requests for personal worldly aid, but a priest would scold you if he knew that’s ALL you prayed for. You’re supposed to thank god for giving you existence, ask for the strength to live more virtuously, ask for leniency on your imperfections, etc.

I’m glad we have you to tell us what is and isn’t culture worth preserving; we were at real risk of having a diversity of opinion for a moment there.

Kidnapping?

https://xkcd.com/903/

Many hospitals are also run by the church. Catholics believe in science - all recent popes say evolution is fact.

What about him?

Obama’s been gone almost a decade at this point and we still have yet to pass this bill because the government always backs down at the last minute in the face of threats from the US that it would “force” US companies to not do business with us. The Dáil (parliament) supports the bill but the cabinet shoots it down. So you’re not wrong to be cynical, but every time Israel commits some fresh outrage the pressure grows for the government to pass it or risk losing the next election.