On 04-21-98 William Elliot wrote to David Martorana... 
nice post; skeptical realism appreciated. 
 WE> With stuff like this happening we'd  
 WE> better make sure that there are no remnants of Hilter to be  
 WE> found anywhere on this planet.  What ever international  
 WE> restrictions arise prohibiting cloning, tyrants of the  
 WE> future will be sure to bequeath their genes to their  
 WE> faithful followers who will plague us with their badly made  
 WE> reruns.  Do you think that DNA from Einstein's pickled  
 WE> brained, that he donated to science, could be revitalized? 
Perhaps you heard that they proved that brains are inherited from 
the mother?  So, reading between the lines of Eistein's life, I 
see he spent a lotta time between the sheets with willing ladies, 
who instead of getting geniuses, got kids with his looks and her 
brains- or lack thereof. ;) 
 
As to Hitler, I would not sweat it; there's still the problem of 
environmental impact on growing kids, and very little to suggest 
what kind of kid you will end up with despite cloning.  A Stoic, 
like Marcus Aurelius, will tell you that parenting's a difficult 
task that not many folks are up to; and despite having being one 
of the most outstanding minds in history, *his son* was an ass. 
 
If the political and capitalistic ineptitude does screw up, as I 
think it very well might, the typical expectation is anarchy for 
some months while widespread genocide is carried out, and then a 
gradual reorganization into feudal warlords.  The sucessful wars 
will be won by those who can organize what resources remain; the 
high tech jets will be runway junk; contrary to 'Mad Maxx', fuel 
will be too short to provide many vehicles, and most of the fuel 
remaining might better be spent on tractors to plant with. 
 
Murphy would probly provide some kind of global pandemic, that's 
on the one hand, going to kill armies too, and on the other, put 
a lot of starving folks out of their misery. 
 
The more global population grows, the more rigidly production is 
going to have to be organized to achieve the kinds of efficiency 
needed to meet demand, and the more brittle that system will be, 
the more rapid it's collapse, and the more devastating. 
 
I can imagine a group of visionaries taking some step to survive 
such a disaster, having the imagination to organize resources to 
sustainability, and the weapons to keep what they have.  I can't 
imagine them letting anyone else know where they are. 
___ 
 * OFFLINE 1.58 * Like reading the writing on the wall when you're up against 
it. 
--- Maximus 3.01
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