Clones

clones-armyA thought just occurred to me regarding clones. I read a headline from an article and the gist of it was related to the cloning of past/present political leaders and here’s immediately what came to mind:

If we clone someone, we do not clone their life experiences (from my understanding, the memory of the brain is completely lost and the “cloning” is only of the physical specimen, not their experienced consciousness from the past). That being the case, take my “Dues…” article for instance. I am not a man of formal education as it were. I am a man of experiences. I am gifted with an above average i.q., however, because of my experiences, I am what I am.

Let’s take a look at a past historical figure out of the blue…. say we take a look at Thomas Jefferson. If Jefferson was cloned in today’s world, he would not have the same experiences as he had previously. He would not know of the trouble this country faced during his childhood with the British Crown. He would not face the same types of injustices as was seen in the 1700’s. If Jefferson were to be cloned, he would need the same type of education upbringing as he was afforded in his past, or something similar, in order to facilitate further learning and further experiences. Therefore, does the genes make the man or does the experiences placed upon the man with exceptional genes make the man? I would consider the experiences placed upon the clone would determine the viewpoints that person develops in life and therefore, the outcome, while it would probably be masked as “….since he’s in this day and time, he sees things thus and so.”, I would say would be incorrect. A more correct analogy would be “…because we’ve taken the opportunity to indoctrinate him in this way or that, he believes this and that.”

My point is, if we ever reach the ability and cross the line to clone a human, especially one with past grandeur such as Mr. Jefferson, we must be very careful not to place too much emphasis on what he once was, but what he was instructed to become.

Author: John Holstein