Long weekend, and I have some completely random ideas in my head that I want to cover. First order of business is Kevin Durant. Don’t worry for you non-sport fans, the other topics aren’t sports related.
The kid and his Longhorns were shown an early exit from the NCAA Tournament, so I was wrong about that. The good news is he is saying all the things that make it sound like he is at least still considering returning to Austin next year. He said something along the lines of “trying for a 4.0” “thinks this team has a lot of work to do next season” and “I want to win a National Championship.” Now those aren’t the sound bites of a guy who has already made up his mind to go pro, and you can’t really take everything he says literally, but it’s nice to see that he’s at least considering staying. Mike and Mike in the Morning on ESPN radio, made the very interesting point that coming to school for one season helps a kid make more money. In Durant’s shoes (Nike, I think) had he gone pro after high school, he would have made a few million in the NBA this season. But now that we know who he is, and most of America loves him, he’ll make so much more in endorsements. Now, they also made the point that coming back for another year won’t benefit him at all. He’s already the #1, maybe #2 pick. He can’t possibly get any better press or a better NBA contract since they have limits on what a rookie can sign for.
But he still sounds like a kid that might come back. And that spells bad news for KU, but great news for college hoops. Kevin, please come back.
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Next order of business, cloning.
This weekend some friends and I got into a very engaging, and fun debate concerning the cloning of pets. And I’ve had some more time to consider my stance on this, and luckily I have this forum to get it out there. Plus if they read it, they have to read it all before responding and I can make sure to get the last word. I like that, sorry, I just do.
My belief is just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we necessarily should. It’s great that we can clone, it’s truly remarkable. But should we? No, I don’t think we should. First, I don’t understand why you’d want to. This one friend said he would clone his dog so he could have a replacement when his current mutt kicks it. Well, I understand that it sucks to lose a pet, but cloning it doesn’t give you your pet back. It gives you one that looks like your old dog. Cloning is very superficial, you don’t get the memories or connection with the cloned animal. You just get one that looks like your old dog.
That’s just one reason I feel it’s a bad thing to do. Secondly, and maybe more importantly, it’s playing God. Funny that the agnostic kid doesn’t so much care for anyone playing God. There is a nature of order, what controls that we can debate, but I think we can all agree that there’s an order to life. You’re born, you do whatever, you die. It sucks, but that’s how it works. Sometimes we fight off death, sometimes for too long. And we create life, but not in a lab. Same goes with animals. Creating life is a crapshoot, much like living. You can do certain things to put yourself in a desireable position, but it’s still a crapshoot. Copying a life just isn’t right. And let me add this, I used to work at Kinkos, I learned this. No matter how great the copier, the paper and the technology, a copy is never the exact same as the original. This is why Kobe Bryant isn’t as good as Michael Jordan, and why Zach Braff will never be Tom Hanks.
The last reason I’m against it is this, the technology scares the shit out of me. I understand a lot of good can come from it. We could possibly grow spare body parts, find a cure for cancer and other diseases. That’s all great, but at what cost? At some point, someone has to draw the line. Do you draw the line at cloning animals and why? Who gets to decide? Chances are it would be politicians, and I don’t exactly trust their track record when it comes to deciding what’s morally right for the rest of us. Really, there’s a lot more money to be made in cloning people rather than preventing it, so I think we know which way they’d decide.
And as for the thought/hope that they could find a cure for cancer or other diseases, well don’t get me wrong. I definitely think we should continue to search and strive for those cures, but I’m not sure it should be done by any means necessary. Look, I know someone who just past away this weekend from cancer, and I mean no disrespect to their family. But people die, it sucks, but it has to happen. The whole idea behind cloning people, or pets, is to keep life going. Well, it isn’t supposed to. How would we know to appreciate anything if we knew there was no end? You know what else? Our times lack originals as it is, the last thing we need is carbon copies of people. Even me, shit, especially another me.
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