[HN Gopher] Two research teams grew synthetic mouse embryos usin...
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       Two research teams grew synthetic mouse embryos using stem cells
        
       Author : gmays
       Score  : 75 points
       Date   : 2022-08-26 17:58 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nature.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nature.com)
        
       | lisper wrote:
       | How is this different from cloning?
        
       | sometimeshuman wrote:
       | As I understand it, this procedure would result in a near perfect
       | clone baring a few random mutations in the stem cell which they
       | could probably screen for.
       | 
       | To digress. I want a clone, more than anything. It's only _thing_
       | I 'd pay more than $100k+ for aside from housing.
       | 
       | I submit that society would benefit if every other generation was
       | a clone. If I were raised by my parent-clone I would have matured
       | faster and been more skilled at playing baby-roulette with a
       | natural child.
       | 
       | Whenever I meet a 20-30 year old that has the temperament and
       | calmness of a 40-50 year old I suspect one of two things:
       | 
       | 1) their young-ish parents won at baby-roulette and their child
       | had a personality similar to theirs and were able to guide them
       | through adolescence in a more optimal way.
       | 
       | 2) their parents were older and maturer and could navigate the
       | personality conflicts in a way that didn't lead to long-term
       | family dysfunction.
       | 
       | but even #2 is rare since not all older parents can handle all
       | personality types, hence my suggestion for a third option: family
       | lines based on alternate generation cloning.
        
         | axg11 wrote:
         | >To digress. I want a clone, more than anything. It's only
         | thing I'd pay more than $100k+ for aside from housing.
         | 
         | Can you explain why you want a clone? Genetically identical
         | twins can and do end up having very different lives and
         | personalities.
        
           | sometimeshuman wrote:
           | Narcissism, maybe ? But given we have a surplus of adoptable
           | children on this planet and not enough parents, I would argue
           | most people have a natural child out of subconscious
           | narcissism.
        
             | jwond wrote:
             | > most people have a natural child out of subconscious
             | narcissism
             | 
             | I would imagine the desire to have a child that is
             | genetically yours is a consequence of evolution. Those
             | whose genes instill within them the desire to have a child
             | of their own would be more driven to actually reproduce and
             | pass on those genes.
        
         | idiotsecant wrote:
         | I am not sure you have much experience with children. Telling a
         | child that you know what their personality will be because they
         | are a copy of _you_ and you would respond a certain way or do a
         | certain thing is an absolute recipe for ensuring that the child
         | will do the opposite of that thing. What you 're describing is
         | a procedure for creating as divergent of a personality in your
         | clone as genetics will allow.
        
         | DC-3 wrote:
         | Most likely, your clone-child would grow to hate you. Why not
         | just do things the sane way and marry a nice woman and have a
         | child with her?
        
           | serf wrote:
           | > Most likely, your clone-child would grow to hate you. Why
           | not just do things the sane way and marry a nice woman and
           | have a child with her?
           | 
           | why is that 'most likely'?
           | 
           | certainly very few people would say that so bluntly to anyone
           | interested in natural child rearing or adoption -- why does
           | this circumstance permit one to make such a blunt and likely
           | ill-informed (we don't have a lot of experience with human
           | clones..) statement?
        
             | maximus-decimus wrote:
             | Ironically, it that person thinks they would hate their
             | "parents" if they had made them a clone, their clone would
             | probably actually hate them!
        
           | sometimeshuman wrote:
           | Accepting your child may grow to hate you should be a pre-
           | requisite for any aspiring parent. What we are doing is not
           | "sane"[0]. Perhaps I am biased since I live in Southern
           | California which is the Mecca for children of dysfunctional
           | families.
           | 
           | [0] Opening paragraph of Anna Karenina, Tolstoy
        
         | daenz wrote:
         | >If I were raised by my parent-clone I would have matured
         | faster and been more skilled at playing baby-roulette with a
         | natural child.
         | 
         | This is leaning _heavily_ on the assumption that your
         | personality is primarily a product of your genetics, and not of
         | your life experiences. Outside of relating on physiology, what
         | makes you think you would understand their reactions to unique
         | life experiences at such a young age?
         | 
         | Speaking as someone who had a dramatic personality shift from
         | early trauma, I don't think that what you hypothesize is true.
        
           | sometimeshuman wrote:
           | "This is leaning heavily on the assumption that your
           | personality is primarily a product of your genetics"
           | 
           | Not really. If you allow that it is even 1% due to genetics,
           | that better parenting compounds over generations. And there
           | is a lot of evidence that it is much more than 1%. I too
           | experienced numerous traumatic events by the time I was 12
           | and was then prone towards neuroticism for decades after. I
           | still submit I'd be a much better parent to a clone than
           | someone who has half my dna.
        
             | daenz wrote:
             | It sounds like you're saying you'd consciously be a better
             | parent to a clone _because_ you know it is a clone.
        
               | dymk wrote:
               | It sounds like they're saying that they would end up
               | being a better parent because it's a clone, not because
               | they _know_ it 's a clone.
        
               | daenz wrote:
               | I'm not trying to put them on trial but...
               | 
               | The OP has no way of knowing if they would be a better
               | parent, but yet they still very strongly _think_ that
               | they would be a better parent to a child that has 100%
               | similar dna than 50% similar dna. How can you know this
               | unless you are biased towards the _idea_ of a clone?  "I
               | want a clone, more than anything" suggests there is bias.
        
         | staticassertion wrote:
         | I'd rather just have a clone for spare organs. I wonder how
         | long you can increase human lifespan if you have a supply of
         | blood and organs from a perfect match 20 year old donor.
        
       | pepperonipizza wrote:
       | I can't understand why countries like China aren't investing more
       | in researching ectogenesis.
       | 
       | It seems a good solution for the future of their population, the
       | fertility rate will probably never go back to 2.
        
       | Victerius wrote:
       | "They are totally obedient, taking any order without question."
       | 
       | Seriously, we need to loosen the regulations on cloning,
       | including animal and, yes, human cloning. We are holding back
       | innovation.
        
         | rhacker wrote:
         | why should we allow human cloning? at some point won't we just
         | get evil clones coming out of russia to fight the next big war?
         | We could even alter them just enough to call them sub-human,
         | store them in cages and teach them to shoot machine guns.
        
           | arthurcolle wrote:
           | Ape together strong
        
         | wszfahwbwbaha wrote:
        
           | junon wrote:
           | That's not how discourse works here. Take that to reddit
           | please.
        
             | wszfahwbwbaha wrote:
             | Why should someone be allowed to say truly deranged
             | ramblings? But calling them out for it is not okay? Truly a
             | vile culture and you should be ashamed for creating a safe
             | space for people to spout eugenics.
        
         | CobrastanJorji wrote:
         | Yes, and if we completely eliminated all other ethical
         | restrictions on research, we'd innovate all the faster. Get
         | those old Nazi scientists on the phone, there's slightly faster
         | progress to be made!
        
           | hnbad wrote:
           | The thing most people don't get about the Nazi scientists is
           | that Nazi science was actually pretty bad because it turns
           | out being a Nazi makes you a worse scientist. The horrific
           | "experiments" most people think of had no scientific value
           | and amounted to little more than torture and abuse but even
           | "normal" science was hampered by paranoia about the
           | supposedly corrupting influence of Jewish scientists'
           | research.
           | 
           | The same is true about the Wunderwaffen btw. The "wonder
           | weapons" were more of a lame marketing gimmick than actually
           | feasible threats. They were mostly inconveniently oversized
           | versions of existing weapons with no strategic use. Most of
           | them never saw the light of day but wouldn't have skewed the
           | outcome of the war, at least not in any direction favorable
           | to the Nazis themselves.
        
       | roschdal wrote:
       | Why do we need this? Will USA use it to abuse and control the
       | rest of the world?
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | marshray wrote:
         | "Hanna hopes to use the technique to develop human synthetic
         | embryos that can be a source of new organs and tissues for
         | people who need them."
        
       | nikhizzle wrote:
       | Is this a basis for explaining immaculate conception?
        
         | nsxwolf wrote:
         | Immaculate Conception is a doctrine pertaining to the
         | conception of Mary, not Jesus. /pedant
        
           | marshray wrote:
           | Mary was conceived immaculately too?
        
             | nsxwolf wrote:
             | No, the Immaculate Conception refers to Mary having been
             | conceived without being marked by original sin, not that
             | she didn't have a biological father.
        
               | daenz wrote:
               | I always understood the word "conceived" or "conception"
               | to apply to the person being born, not the parent. Is
               | this not accurate?
        
               | nsxwolf wrote:
               | Yes, that's how it's being applied here, referring to
               | Mary's own conception. It's a Catholic doctrine that
               | essentially says God called the Mary constructor with a
               | status override flag of "originalSin = false", so that
               | she would go on to be a fitting vessel to carry Christ
               | later.
        
               | daenz wrote:
               | Oh, I understand now, thanks. So in theory, if Mary had
               | had multiple children, it would have really messed up the
               | idea of the Trinity (3)
        
               | ben_w wrote:
               | It messes up _someone 's_ headcannon, that's for sure:
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_of_Jesus
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | evanb wrote:
         | Various species exhibit parthenogenesis under (sometimes
         | unusual) circumstances
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis
         | 
         | No evidence of human parthenogenesis ('virgin birth') is known.
         | 
         | The immaculate conception was the conception of _Mary_, who was
         | born without Original Sin (that's what makes it immaculate), in
         | order to be clean enough to carry Jesus aand bear a virgin
         | birth. The whole prior sentence should be sprinkled with
         | 'allegedly' appropriately in every clause.
        
         | csours wrote:
         | Or self-cloning? Here's a thought to give you the shivering
         | frights: What if a someone created a self-cloning version of
         | themselves? Humanity could be replaced by a single clone.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marbled_crayfish
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis
        
           | marshray wrote:
           | Not in the land of the 2nd Amendment it won't.
        
             | csours wrote:
             | Haha, I was just kidding. I'm still alive and perfectly
             | fine. I haven't been kidnapped by aaarrggghhhhhhh
        
           | conductr wrote:
           | Is this someone's name Agent Smith?
        
         | numtel wrote:
         | No, that's parthenogenesis. We can already do that with mice.
        
       | jonas-w wrote:
       | I read "House embryos" and was like, okay how far have we come?
        
         | csours wrote:
         | Treehouse of Horror embryo
        
       | raarts wrote:
       | I think we are about to find out why evolution dropped cloning as
       | a viable mechanism for reproduction.
        
         | thaumasiotes wrote:
         | The premise is false; cloning is all around you.
         | 
         | However, bacteria have other ways of exchanging genetic
         | material with each other, and more complex clonal organisms go
         | extinct fairly quickly in geological time frames. But more will
         | arise.
        
         | biotinker wrote:
         | Numerous organisms regularly reproduce via cloning, including
         | most of the oldest and largest organisms, e.g. Pando. Bacteria,
         | many plants, and some simpler animals primarily reproduce via
         | cloning.
         | 
         | Parthenogenesis is also a strategy employed as needed by fish,
         | reptiles, and some birds.
         | 
         | I'm not suggesting that cloning is superior, but to call it
         | "not a viable mechanism" is a mischaracterization.
        
           | raarts wrote:
           | Maybe I should have added: 'for higher lifeforms'.
        
             | biotinker wrote:
             | How would you define "higher lifeforms" such that it does
             | not include birds?
             | 
             | Parthenogenesis has also been induced in mammals (mice) in
             | a lab setting, though it has not been observed in the wild
             | yet.
        
       | numtel wrote:
       | Wake me up when I can grow a mouse from my own body and see from
       | its eyes.
       | 
       | http://latenightsketches.com/detach-2.html
        
         | korijn wrote:
         | Stumbling upon this felt like a bit of the old internet's
         | magic. Thanks.
        
         | krrrh wrote:
         | I love how the narrator pluralizes shaman as shamen. Subtle way
         | to cast the unreliable narrator, but I'll probably start using
         | this construction now.
        
         | sabellito wrote:
         | Excuse me, where is the rest of the book?
        
         | zeristor wrote:
         | So basically drones.
        
         | EForEndeavour wrote:
         | That short story contains the highest density of mind-
         | blowingness per unit text I've seen in a long time.
        
           | numtel wrote:
           | Thank you so much!
        
             | upwardbound wrote:
             | Such a cool story :)
             | 
             | If you'd like this breadcrumb as something that could help
             | make the world of the story feel like it could be our
             | world, here's an interesting thing which is that Alan
             | Turing thought that telepathy could be possible, and tried
             | to account for this when designing the Turing Test.
             | 
             | https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19728844/extrasensory-
             | pe...
             | 
             | If telepathy were to be possible as described in your
             | story, you could explain it as mind-body dualism being real
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind%E2%80%93body_dualism and
             | that the new animal born from the person temporarily shares
             | a neural link with the person's brain, causing the sharing
             | of one spirit, and that when the neural link is broken as
             | the animal separates, the spirit is still anchored to both
             | parts of the formerly-unified nervous system. The
             | explanation for why this wouldn't happen during standard
             | childbirth is that mother and child don't share a neural
             | link, only a blood link.
             | 
             | Here's another breadcrumb for this idea https://www.science
             | daily.com/releases/2017/01/170125093823.h...
        
               | numtel wrote:
               | Your telepathy explanation is exactly where I was coming
               | from. This is why I believe we'll be able to live forever
               | without uploading our minds into computers.
        
             | psychphysic wrote:
             | How has Netflix not greenlit this already?
             | 
             | It could revive black mirror.
        
       | daenz wrote:
       | Ethics aside, it would probably be good to conquer the population
       | size problem. Then people can stop fighting about birth rates and
       | immigration.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | nashashmi wrote:
         | There is no such thing as overpopulation problem. In urban
         | planning we are always considering ways we can engineer cities
         | to hold 100 million people to a billion people. In fact, that
         | would be a great alternative to suburbanism and increase
         | forestry with the extra land. So this whole random idea of
         | overpopulation is alarmism over nothing.
         | 
         | Granted, high population also means small 'mansions' and maybe
         | THAT is their greatest worry.
        
           | daenz wrote:
           | >So this whole random idea of overpopulation is alarmism over
           | nothing.
           | 
           | Underpopulation is what I was referring to. Some countries
           | have extremely low birth rates, and stabilizing them is
           | important.
        
         | shredprez wrote:
         | I dunno, I can't imagine industrializing our domestic supply of
         | infants would do anything but accelerate that particular arms
         | race.
        
         | Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
         | The population size problem is not because people can't have
         | enough children, it's because they _don 't want_ to have
         | (enough) children.
         | 
         | I don't see how cloning helps with that.
        
           | daenz wrote:
           | Regardless of the source of the problem, the end result is
           | the same: not enough people. Cloning treats that symptom even
           | if it doesn't address the source. But yes, you're left with a
           | new problem: who will raise these new people? If it came down
           | to it, the state. Or the state would assign children to
           | couples.
        
             | Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
             | Couples are unlikely to accept. So the only option would be
             | for the state to raise them... I think I saw some sci fi
             | movie where the galactic republic solved a problem with
             | hostile robots this way..
        
               | daenz wrote:
               | I was thinking more along the lines of Vivarium (very
               | mild spoilers, sorry!), but yes.
        
           | klyrs wrote:
           | If the clones are wards of the state, then an
           | industrialized/automated approach to child-rearing becomes
           | plausible. Yes, this is dystopian. But if we're going to do
           | it, we should use the Montessori model, with each cohort
           | helping raise the next.
        
         | irrational wrote:
         | What population size problem? Birth rates have plummeted in all
         | developed countries. As more countries become developed the
         | same thing will happen. The population size problem is already
         | solved - birth control, freedom for women, middle class
         | lifestyles, etc.
        
           | nabakin wrote:
           | Population size isn't much of a concern right now so idk what
           | OP is talking about, but I doubt population size is solved.
           | Natural selection, in absence of premature death, selects for
           | those that give birth the most. So while at the moment, we
           | are in a sort of lull, eventually the people who have a low
           | birth rate, will be selected out of the population. The only
           | way this doesn't happen is with another force acting in the
           | opposite direction. For example, maybe whatever is causing
           | the birth rate decline now, actually counters the incentives
           | of natural selection over hundreds or thousands of years, or
           | the population exceeds the carrying capacity of the Earth
           | such that premature death becomes common once again.
        
           | daenz wrote:
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32589499
        
         | ben_w wrote:
         | > Then people can stop fighting about birth rates and
         | immigration.
         | 
         | If human cloning ever becomes accepted, I suspect racism will
         | end up promoting an even smaller gene pool than it already
         | does, with anyone who _isn 't_ a clone of Dear Leader And His
         | Chosen Ones forming the out-group.
         | 
         | Such a system would still hate immigration.
        
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