TRIFECTA DEFECTA

We have been urged by ‘the good book’ to walk upright, multiply, replenish the earth, follow the example of the creator and – in all cases – seek out what is praiseworthy and what promotes life and progress on this remarkable gift of a planet.

As we are now, we see ourselves as unique. But how unique are we?

We face a lot of revelation in the future concerning our existence in the universe and whether or not we are someone else’s property or if we share the vastness of space with other brothers and sisters or even entities or creatures that are not even anthropomorphic. Wouldn’t that be the ultimate test of our ability to have tolerance or even acceptance of an intelligent being that looks nothing like the human form?

Once again, you now have a responsibility to be ready for the philosophical challenges that face us in the not too distant future. There is no more room for hate, or misunderstanding, it is time for us to open our minds and learn about uncomfortable things and try to cope with the abrupt changes that come with future shock.

I was once told by an ignorant religious zealot that the world has no need for my so called “Future shock.” I was told that Future Shock is of the devil and that I will burn in hell for encouraging Future Shock.

I tried to explain that Future shock was not in any way and idea of mine and that it most certainly is not of the devil. It was unfortunate that the explanation was ignored and that I was going to burn in hell for my heresy.

It is time we realize what Future shock is so that we will know what it is once it sets in.

The idea of Future shock was first introduced to the world by Alvin Toffler, in a book of the same name published in 1970. “Future shock” simply defined is “too much change in too short a period of time.”

Today, we live in the very future Toffler warned everyone about. Some people believe we are better off by having to endure it while others believe it will lead to an overload of information and that our minds will not be able to handle all of the changes and soon the future and humans will run amuck.

At the moment there seem to be many villains in our future that we have already developed a bias against. One particular villain is Transhumanism. Adherents of Transhumanism point to the singularity (an exponential increase in technological advancement so rapid the unaided human mind is unable to grasp its implications) as the climax of human civilization. Believing this event will usher in a new era for the human race in which limited mortals transcend their biological bodies and set out to conquer the universe.

There are many scientists that have expressed that our human survival will have to at least allow for the marriage of the biological human and the technological advancements of Artificial Intelligence and machines.

Many Futurists believe the singularity will lead to the emergence of “post-biological humans” who are able to shed their biological containers and “upgrade to an avatar or new body.” Others believe that by downloading themselves into a network, they will effectively become “immortal.” True believers have modified their diets, exercise regimens, and entire lifestyle in an effort to increase the likelihood of living to witness human reversal of the aging process and eventual human “immortality.”

Ray Kurzweil the author of the bestselling book The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, has painted a future where advancements in human modification and the accelerating growth of evolution will happen rapidly and that it is in this advanced state of being that mankind will become superhuman and Godlike.

“Evolution moves toward greater complexity, greater elegance, greater knowledge, greater intelligence, greater beauty, greater creativity, and greater levels of subtle attributes such as love. In every monotheistic tradition God is likewise described as all of these qualities, only without any limitation: infinite knowledge, infinite intelligence, infinite beauty, infinite creativity, infinite love, and so on.

Of course, even the accelerating growth of evolution never achieves an infinite level, but as it explodes exponentially it certainly moves rapidly in that direction. So evolution moves inexorably toward this conception of God, although never quite reaching this ideal. We can regard, therefore, the freeing of our thinking from the severe limitations of its biological form to be an essentially spiritual undertaking.” —Ray Kurzweil

This is idealistic and while it sounds good to the intellect it needs to be said that Scientists have this uncanny knack for turning seemingly innocent things into horrifying specters of terror.

We have seen simple Atoms turned to weapons and thanks to companies like Monsanto we are now seeing food being genetically modified and altered to become weoponized as well.

There are many critics that believe that those who are preoccupied with GMO’s are merely worried about change and that their fears about these food are irrational.

I am sure some farmers are thrilled that they now can grow crops that not only yield more, but provide their own internal pesticide. Just imagine how that hot buttered cob of corn you are eating at the picnic has within its genetic code a pesticide that you are putting into your body every time you bite.

You don’t even wonder about the pesticide and how it affects your cells on a genetic level. You probably don’t even know that the organic corn you are eating be tainted by cross pollination with the genetically modified crop or that the pesticides can sometimes wipe out other animals, or unintentionally destroy bees and cause colony collapse.

Independent studies have shown that Rats fed GM potatoes developed bleeding stomachs and several died; sheep died after grazing in GM cotton fields. Many tests have shown that a lot of the pesticide that is in the DNA of the plant you consume remains in your intestinal tract.

The only published human feeding experiment revealed that the genetic material inserted into GM soy transfers into bacteria living inside our intestines and continues to function. This means that long after we stop eating GM foods, we may still have their GM proteins produced continuously inside us. Antibiotic genes that are used on most crops could be the culprit for super diseases, resistant to antibiotics.

In some of the case studies animals were developing organ lesions, altered liver and pancreas cells, changed enzyme levels, also temperament and behavior changes like aggressive behaviors. We are now heading into at least two decades where GM foods have been a part of the diet and we are beginning to see some very interesting things happening with regard to American health.

The sad part is that now GMO’s are now found in 86 percent corn, 93 percent of soy, canola, and cottonseed oil, and 95 percent of sugar beets. In the last 20 years food allergies are on the rise. Childhood obesity and morbid obesity are pandemic in America. People are plagued with acid reflux, and gastro intestinal problems. The Food and Drug administration has been responsible for pushing anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers, and antibiotics on the population. These drugs are being prescribed at an alarming rate.

I know that there are people out there that encourage the eating of these foods because they believe that the warnings against them are purely Junk science and science fiction paranoia.

The thing we need to remember about future shock is that it is too much change in a short amount of time and that we may hear of something and write it off as some paranoid conspiracy theory only to find out that the subject is very real and that mainstream science chooses to avoid any and all reports of consequences that are the result of tampering with nature.

For example Ground Zero reported years ago that the world’s first genetically modified humans had been created and that 30 healthy babies were born after a series of experiments in the United States. It was believed at the time that two of the babies have been tested and have been found to contain genes from three ‘parents’.

This allegedly was the result of one experimental program at the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of St Barnabas in New Jersey. The babies were born to women who had problems conceiving. Extra genes from a female donor were inserted into their eggs before they were fertilized in an attempt to enable them to conceive. Genetic fingerprint tests on two one-year- old children confirmed that they inherited DNA from three adults –two women and one man.

Just last night I was reminded again that these experiments took place, as a headline appeared on the Drudgereport that read “Three parents.” The headline was accompanied by a picture of a baby’s hand being held by an adult.

The headline was linked to a story published in the Independent that stated that there was a controversial IVF method that was being investigated in the United States.

The article confirmed the suspicions of what was once conspiracy theory some 20 years ago.

“A private fertility clinic in the United States has launched an investigation into the health of 17 teenagers who were born as a result of a controversial IVF technique that produced the world’s first ‘three-parent’ embryos more than 15 years ago.”

Furthermore the article went on to confirm the number of babies born using this technique:

“The technique – which the US government halted in 2002 – involved mixing the eggs of two women so that the resulting IVF babies inherited genetic material from three individuals in a similar process to that planned in Britain for women carrying maternally inherited mitochondrial disorders.

About 30 IVF babies worldwide are believed to have been born by the technique, known as “cytoplasmic transfer”, including 17 infants at the Saint Barnabas Medical Centre in New Jersey who, until now, have not been checked for any long-term health problems resulting from the technique.”

Scientists in the United States announced in 2001 that cytoplasmic transfer had produced the first “genetically modified” babies with DNA from three people but until now there had been no follow-up of the 17 children to find out whether they had developed any long-term health problems as a result.

England is now voting on whether or not this procedure along with mitochondrial donation should be legal.

Any long-term health problems resulting from the technique could be embarrassing for the private IVF clinic, which began cytoplasmic transfer in 1996 as a way of boosting the chances of a successful pregnancy for couples seeking fertility treatment until it was stopped in 2002 after the US Food and Drug Administration intervened.

The fact that the children have inherited the extra genes and incorporated them into their germ line means that they will, in turn, be able to pass them on to their own offspring. Altering the human germ line – in effect tinkering with the very make-up of our species – is a technique shunned by the vast majority of the world’s scientists.

Cytoplasmic transfer involves injecting small amounts of non-nuclear material, including the energy-producing mitochondria, from a healthy donor egg into the egg of a woman undergoing IVF.

The question is , do you think that keeping this experiment quite has mislead the public and should there be some punishment levied against the infertility clinic that participated?

The Government admits it has decided to adopt “a working definition of ‘GM’ Children for the purpose of taking forward proposed standard regulations but scientists believe that the redefinition of GM is dishonest.

The Health Department accepts the germ-line of future generations will be altered, but it insists, in its official response to the public, that this does not amount to genetic modification. According to a statement made “There is no universally agreed definition of ‘genetic modification’ in humans – people who have organ transplants, blood donations or even gene therapy are not generally regarded as being ‘genetically modified.”

Meanwhile the public is just barely hearing about such an experiment and it seems that mainstream media and others have been successful at keeping speculation about such an experiment in the margins of conspiracy theory.

Science is celebrating while others not keeping up are shocked and some are offended that these children will be sharing three parents.

With all this I have three words “Brave New World.”