[extropy-chat] Cloned beef in food supply? And others...

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Natasha Vita-More <natasha at natasha.cc> wrote:
> On this list, I'd like to see ideas developed,
> discussed and debated.  Now, 
> with all that said, does anyone have a topic that
> will enrich our thinking 
> and understanding of how the heck we are going to
> realize our extropic future?

Mildly political, but:

Read
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-sci-cattle10feb10,1,7022762.story?coll=la-headlines-technology
closely.  Note the parts where it says cloned cattle
are soon to be sold without tracking.

Conclusion: cloned beef will soon be - and probably
already is, since there are those who wouldn't admit
to it but would sell earlier - in the general US food
supply, unlabelled because the FDA won't permit sales
of beef that is labelled as cloned long after it said
it would issue a decision.  If the FDA was
deliberately intending to create a situation where it
would be "impossible" to regulate cloned food while
appearing to appease the squeamish, this would make a
great approach - and it's not like it wasn't
predictable.

Also: if you haven't heard of BrainGate, google for
it.  I wonder if there's any chance of writing an
open source driver for that hardware - or if the
proprietary drivers work well enough.  Also, I wonder
if there is a way to partially automate the
installation, so you don't need (as much) expensive
neurosurgeon service.  (Part of the challenge:
adapting the interface to each person's somewhat
unique, yet somewhat mass-produced, neural map.)

Third, what would happen if someone seriously floated
the proposal to mine some M-type asteroids as a means
of reducing the US debt.  Even if you concentrated on
extracting plantinum-group and other precious metals
and returning them to Earth (there are arguments about
the value of iron in space, but those presume a viable
space construction industry which doesn't yet exist,
thus the value of raw iron in space is essentially $0
at this time), there's enough to at least take out a
significant chunk of the debt.  Promise every
contractor involved a share of the loot but emphasize
that the steps to get there can't cost that much, and
you'll probably get cooperation on the cost controls
even from Boeing and Lockheed (traditionally very
expensive providers of space access) out of
self-interest.  If any other nations protest about the
dangers of moving asteroids around - well, the US's
present administration isn't that concerned about its
foreign image anyway, but more about making history
and doing what's right even despite present critics.
Certainly, wiping out the debt that more or less began
with Reagan, or even just setting up the program that
would do so (say, by harvesting a small asteroid
before 2009 - the deadline for Bush to get serious
credit for this - and setting things up to harvest
more and larger asteroids afterwards), would be a
monumental achievement for the Bush administration.