Comment by apt-apt-apt-apt

14 hours ago

Humans can likely be cloned too.

Imagine 10,000 Albert Einsteins and John von Neumanns working together with modern AI on medical, scientific, and societal issues.

Though there could be an Evil Einstein due to upbringing or something.

17 comments

apt-apt-apt-apt

Reply
probably_wrong  8 hours ago

I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.

(quote by Stephen Jay Gould)

  • jatora  5 hours ago

    I don't see the point of your comment besides sidestepping a clearly revolutionary mind and an interesting scenario.

    • probably_wrong  4 hours ago

      The point of my comment is to call attention to the SV tendency of hyper-focusing on the newest shiny toy as a solution to all problems while ignoring the real solutions to the real problems we have right now.

      If we assume roughly 1.2k people were as smart as Einstein when he was born then, thanks to birth rates, we could have our "10000 Albert Einsteins" today. Statistically speaking ~3k of them alone were born in either India or China and are probably working a regular, badly-to-okay paid job [1]. We could be recruiting them today.

      But no one cares about that because the premise is flawed and it's not about solving "medical, scientific, and societal issues". It's about making money and chasing "interesting scenarios" instead of actual solutions. As the meme format goes, men will literally clone Albert Einstein's brain instead of giving proper funding to schools.

      And sure, chasing SF scenarios is fun, but let's not pretend that any of it is about making society better. As the sibling comment points out, we are more likely to get a clone of Rupert Murdoch than one of Stephen Hawking.

      [1] For extra irony we can imagine a non-zero number of them work for patent offices.

    • Ma8ee  3 hours ago

      I think part of the point is that Einstein’s genius was only partially the brain. It was also a unique upbringing in a specific point in time that made it possible. We would have many more geniuses if we game more people the opportunities.

readthenotes1  14 hours ago

You are such an optimist. We are more likely to get clones of athletes, and clones of billionaires for the organ donation options.

I doubt people like Jonas Salk would accept being cloned if they could help it

dtj1123  11 hours ago

However unlikely it may be, when I see a wealthy celebrity with a doppleganger child the thought crosses my mind that they may have had themselves cloned.

The resemblance between young Donald Trump and his son Barron is uncanny, for example.