Genetic Decay is a fiction created to make cloning appear worse than it is for the purpose of making it something that's highly undesireable in terms of problem resolution.
"Why don't we just send DNA and brain-imprints (which we know how to make!) and just create exact clones of ourselves (which we know how to do!) as opposed to actually shipping a genetically diverse pool of people across the reaches of space?" "BECAUSE Genetic Drift (which in truth can't exist in single generations without gross malfunctions) means that we'd be twisted, warped, flawed copies! DUH!"
I've always liked the fact that in Star Trek, what the Transporter essentially does is destroy/record you at one point and then make an exact quantum copy of you at another, being a flash Bose-Einstein atomic cloning process. If you can have those kinds of transporters you don't need medical science- just transport someone somewhere and splice the quantum states of their brain and body when wounded/ill with the ones taken of them when they're healthy relying on brain scans/imprints to keep the mind exactly as it was and you heal all wounds instantly without the use of supplies.
On the note of evil twins: If they're your identical twin then their DNA is exactly the same as yours down to the fingerprints, genetic illnesses, and any mutations; non-science-fiction fact. The vast, vast, VAST majority of mutations we end up with happen in the DNA that we not only don't use but don't understand why it's there (and is almost always exactly the same in a species) and are useless for DNA tests, so the tests would only discover differences that you probably would be able to see, anyways. DNA tests are great for similarities, but if two people have exactly the same natural phenotype (like identical twins) then it's going to be very, very hard to tell them apart when it comes to their genotype.
The world of science: Why most people hate it. <p>[---------------------------]
"There is great disorder under Heaven, and the situation is excellent."
-Mao Tse-Tung
"I eat the talking bees because I am George Washington Christ"
-From "Bob the Ball"</p>
Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 5:29 pm
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at: 12/4/05 19:30