Bio-electricity
I walked passed a pet shop near my place yesterday (Monday) on the way back after buying dinner. For the first time, I actually saw a hamster running in that circular cage-like treadmill! Yeah, I know you all might think that's no big deal but that was the first time I saw it in real life. Sure, I've seen countless hamsters running in cages on TV and even visualize how they might be running in one. But all those just don't measure up to the real thing.
This sight did spark a question. Why did the hamster want to run in that cage? Just because there is a cage there, it doesn't mean that the hamster would want to run it it. After all, there's nothing in it for the hamster to run in that cage. It boils down to one single factor - choice. The hamster chose to do so, out of its free will.
For quite some time, I've been dreaming of a source of renewable energy and after watching the Matrix series, I believed that bio-electricity is the way to go. It's clean, non-polluting and most importantly, virtually inexhaustible. My idea is basically a "human farm". In such a farm, humans will be caged up similar to how chickens are cooped up. They will walk on treadmills to generate turbines which in turn, generate electricity. I think it's far too advanced for now to extract bio-electricity directly out of human beings, like what they do in the Matrix. Thus, it is only logical to fall back on more primitive ways.
With cloning technology readily available, all we need is to clone hundreds of thousands of one person and get the clones to do all the electricity generation. Ethical issues aside, these farms can really be a viable avenue. The clones in these farms will not be taught on language nor be conscious of the real world. They will see life as it is, walking on treadmills. To them, whatever we present to them in the farm, is reality. Up till this point, it seems perfect. Until I saw the hamster running in the cage.
Why would the clones want to walk on the treadmills? Tell them its for their own good? No, that would mean teaching them lanaguage and increase the chance of revolt. Through classical conditioning, i.e. give them food only if they walk? That would be too difficult and tedious to do for every batch of new clones. A possible answer came to me while I was re-watching Pirates of The Carribean. In the movie, Jack Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp, used a hot iron and scalded a donkey, causing it to feel pain and moved away from this source of pain.
Classical conditioning can be used. More accurately, it's to use negative reinforcement. Subject the clones to pain and torture and they will yield. Just like how jockeys whip horses to make them go faster. However, long-term exposure to such treatments will eventually build resistance within the body and sow dissent among the clones. The best way is to allow them to make the choice, just like how the hamster exercise free will to run in the cage.
The machines in Matrix obviously realised this problem and thus created a virtual reality for all humans to live in. To the trapped humans, life inside this virtual reality is as good as real and the people choose to live. Since they did not know of the real world, there wasn't any real dissent. Furthermore, there were Agents to take care of the dissidents, ensuring that the majority of the population will continue to live "happily" in the virtual world.
To setup a human farm is not too difficult a task, the difficult part is the maintenance, i.e. to ensure that the clones do what they are supposed to do and not be up to any monkey business. Perhaps genetic engineering could be the answer here. Isolate the genes responsible for intelligence and remove them while cloning. Essentially, reduce the level of intelligence to that of a child. All the clones need to know is to recognise the need for food and of course, has the ability to be conditioned.
Of course, as I previously said of another separate topic, human farms will never be possible until the day humans become totally unfeeling and it's highly unlikely that humans will boycott their emotions in favour of rationale thoughts. Then again, we can subjugate all other lifeforms, why not our own clones?
Think of clones as farm animals like cattle or poultry and it will definitely be easier. There was this entreprenuer who became a farmer and sold quail meat, if I rememeber correctly. He started off by keeping quails as pets and eventually saw the potential for quail meat. When asked if he felt disturbed when knowing that the quails he rear will become food, he replied cheerily that he saw the quails he bred as products and not pets, so he was not sad or anything. There you have it. In the face of profits and the prospects of making it big, of course he will be happy. Therefore, there will come a day when we run out of substainable energy resources and have no choice but to turn to bio-electricity.
This sight did spark a question. Why did the hamster want to run in that cage? Just because there is a cage there, it doesn't mean that the hamster would want to run it it. After all, there's nothing in it for the hamster to run in that cage. It boils down to one single factor - choice. The hamster chose to do so, out of its free will.
For quite some time, I've been dreaming of a source of renewable energy and after watching the Matrix series, I believed that bio-electricity is the way to go. It's clean, non-polluting and most importantly, virtually inexhaustible. My idea is basically a "human farm". In such a farm, humans will be caged up similar to how chickens are cooped up. They will walk on treadmills to generate turbines which in turn, generate electricity. I think it's far too advanced for now to extract bio-electricity directly out of human beings, like what they do in the Matrix. Thus, it is only logical to fall back on more primitive ways.
With cloning technology readily available, all we need is to clone hundreds of thousands of one person and get the clones to do all the electricity generation. Ethical issues aside, these farms can really be a viable avenue. The clones in these farms will not be taught on language nor be conscious of the real world. They will see life as it is, walking on treadmills. To them, whatever we present to them in the farm, is reality. Up till this point, it seems perfect. Until I saw the hamster running in the cage.
Why would the clones want to walk on the treadmills? Tell them its for their own good? No, that would mean teaching them lanaguage and increase the chance of revolt. Through classical conditioning, i.e. give them food only if they walk? That would be too difficult and tedious to do for every batch of new clones. A possible answer came to me while I was re-watching Pirates of The Carribean. In the movie, Jack Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp, used a hot iron and scalded a donkey, causing it to feel pain and moved away from this source of pain.
Classical conditioning can be used. More accurately, it's to use negative reinforcement. Subject the clones to pain and torture and they will yield. Just like how jockeys whip horses to make them go faster. However, long-term exposure to such treatments will eventually build resistance within the body and sow dissent among the clones. The best way is to allow them to make the choice, just like how the hamster exercise free will to run in the cage.
The machines in Matrix obviously realised this problem and thus created a virtual reality for all humans to live in. To the trapped humans, life inside this virtual reality is as good as real and the people choose to live. Since they did not know of the real world, there wasn't any real dissent. Furthermore, there were Agents to take care of the dissidents, ensuring that the majority of the population will continue to live "happily" in the virtual world.
To setup a human farm is not too difficult a task, the difficult part is the maintenance, i.e. to ensure that the clones do what they are supposed to do and not be up to any monkey business. Perhaps genetic engineering could be the answer here. Isolate the genes responsible for intelligence and remove them while cloning. Essentially, reduce the level of intelligence to that of a child. All the clones need to know is to recognise the need for food and of course, has the ability to be conditioned.
Of course, as I previously said of another separate topic, human farms will never be possible until the day humans become totally unfeeling and it's highly unlikely that humans will boycott their emotions in favour of rationale thoughts. Then again, we can subjugate all other lifeforms, why not our own clones?
Think of clones as farm animals like cattle or poultry and it will definitely be easier. There was this entreprenuer who became a farmer and sold quail meat, if I rememeber correctly. He started off by keeping quails as pets and eventually saw the potential for quail meat. When asked if he felt disturbed when knowing that the quails he rear will become food, he replied cheerily that he saw the quails he bred as products and not pets, so he was not sad or anything. There you have it. In the face of profits and the prospects of making it big, of course he will be happy. Therefore, there will come a day when we run out of substainable energy resources and have no choice but to turn to bio-electricity.
posted by hg @ 23:51
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