Nature V Nurture

[poliphilo]

Talking about cloning, I see some idiot has purchased one of John Lennon's teeth and plans to extract the DNA and regrow him.

I say, "idiot", but- if you forget the moral dimension- this could  be a really interesting experiment. Would a cloned Lennon turn out anything like the original? I doubt it. To create a perfect duplicate I think you'd need to bring the child up in a holographic version of postwar Liverpool surrounded by android versions of Aunt Mimi, Paul McCartney and all the other players and have them do and say exactly what they did and said first time round- and even then it would only need one butterfly to flap its wings in the wrong place at the wrong time to bring the whole scheme down in ruins.

Still, there's really only one way to be absolutely sure...

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Which will be weird.

What will he be like as a person? How will he feel about himself?

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

Of course, right from the moment that he is born, everyone is going to be expecting great things from him. It might be kind of like what it is like to be royalty (except no one really takes royalty seriously anymore). You are born the heir to the monarchy, therefore everyone expects you to be born "royal".

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The likelihood is the clone will turn out to be nobody special. I don't think talent is encoded in DNA.

But who knows?

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

Or, if certain personality traits ARE passed genetically.... Lennon was a rebel. What do you think Lennon 2 is going to think of the expectations put upon him by his "parents"?

I don't think it's going to turn out the way they think it is.