X-Message-Number: 14011
From: "Mark Plus" <>
Subject: Re: Happy Human Genomics Day!
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 09:44:42 PDT

John de Rivaz wrote:
>
>Message #14005
>From: "John de Rivaz" <>
>References: <>
>Subject: Re: Happy Human Genomics Day!
>Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 16:35:00 +0100
>
>Good point - we ought to try and get the greetings card and allied
>industries to promote more sensible anniversaries that are relevant to
>modern life as opposed to ridiculous "saints days" and festivals produced
>for political reasons by long dead hierarchies. If the idea of "Genomics
>Day" can be propagated, then "Bedford Day" and so on could follow in due
>course.
>
>I have organised a vote on http://www.voteserve.com Find it on the first
>page of politics.
>
>
>Sincerely, John de Rivaz
>my homepage links to Longevity Report, Fractal Report, my singles club for
>people in Cornwall, music, Inventors' report, an autobio and various other
>projects:       http://geocities.yahoo.com/longevityrpt
>
>
>----- Original Message ----- > Message #14004
> > From: "Mark Plus" <>
> > Subject: Happy Human Genomics Day!
> > Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 14:55:59 PDT
> >
> > Happy Human Genomics Day (June 26)!  The "human condition" is on the
> > threshold of becoming obsolete -- and about time!
>
Thank you for endorsing my idea.  It will be interesting to see whether 
genomics becomes a "sexy" field that attracts the big money and the career 
interests of the smartest students in or near college.

One thing is likely:  Figuring out how the genes express themselves 
throughout the course of the currently defined human "life cycle" will 
provide job security for a lot of biologists and their bioinformatics 
support staff.

And unlike the youth-consuming culture of the computer industry, where a lot 
of information workers find themselves unemployable after the age of 40 or 
so, biologists hit their stride in their 40's because of all the empirical 
knowledge they have to integrate into their crystallized intelligence.  
We're not likely to replace the natural nucleic acids with some artificial 
construct any time soon, so what the biology student learns at age 20 will 
still be valid at age 40 and thereafter.

However, has anyone with prestige and name recognition made the case for 
working this information really hard so that we can begin the process of 
conquering aging, degenerative diseases and biolysis itself?  Or is that 
still really taboo?

Trans-millennially yours,

Mark Plus
"Letting go of the 20th Century."


      "...who would lose,
Though full of pain, this intellectual being,
Those thoughts that wander through eternity,
To perish rather, swallowed up and lost
In the wide womb of uncreated Night,
Devoid of sense and motion?"
John Milton, _Paradise Lost_, II:146-151

WWXD?
("What would Xena do?")

Affiliations:
Alcor Life Extension Foundation
http://www.alcor.org
American Atheists
http://www.atheists.org
Society for Venturism
http://www.venturist.org

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