>my proof? look at the problems faced with early _iron_ plows. even
>that was considered "evil" for quite some time.
>
>more recently, look at the IBM monopoly and FUD campaigns of the Bad
>Old Days "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM"

My proof:
look at the problems faced with early _iron_ plows. even
that was considered "evil" for quite some time.

Are iron plows evil today?

Everything following should be taken as my point of view. I do not claim to be a judgmental fellow, or have the right to judge.

Sociological and sociopolitical views change. Often due to radical technological innovation. When the government falls too far behind it's people, either physically (for example: gross repression or genocide) or technologically/ideologically (for example: England's great empire) it is replaced.

Now, before anyone gets their dander up, yes, the old timers who lived in America revolted due to 'oppression'. Uh, right, the tax wasn't near a level that would count as 'gross repression'. Really, it was more about an ideological difference in the importance of freedom (assuming, for the case of this argument, that nobody is going to argue about why the Americans -really- revolted. If you do, please start a new thread).

And the connection of technology? It makes the youthful folks take on ideological views which match the technology curve (very, very few people over fifty care to play video games). It's the same kind of thing that makes music tastes change - whatever you grow up with is the norm.

As time goes on, and technology gets higher and higher, society will adjust. In a century, people will probably look back on this and say, 'How backwards they were, to think that such-and-such would never happen, or that so-and-so would. their culture was so primitive.' In the same way that we giggle about how the body has 'distempers caused by imbalances in the bodily fluid, especially black bile' and 'leaching will help. Trust us!'

Never assume something won't happen. The government will change (hell, it'll probably be replaced rather violently, near the end of our natural life spans), and with it, I believe the ideas of cloning, genetic editing, and cybernetics (which are just now coming into early useful stages) will also change. Hopefully, become more accepted, and not less.

-Craig