Ok, my main character, is artificial, really future set on Earth, still working on the date currently, but I didn't want him to have an artificial body...so I got this weird idea about cloning. He's not cloned off of one human, but instead of many, so he really doesn't have a truth ethnic group, like black, white, mexican, ect...a mix. That's the only way I could come up to think of a body that'd fit with his character.
So I've been doing some research on the cloning topic, mainly wikipedia since it's really vast. So I'm obviously going to go with human cloning, I don't think I would want my boy, Art, to be a sheep or tadpole.
From this article, there are two types of cloning. One that is a natural process in birth, which occurs in identical twins, and he's not really a twin, he has a brother who was created through the same cloning process but there is a number of years in between them by the time Art comes around.
It's called reproductive cloning, where you directly take the cells from an adult human, male or female, and in this case, male, and basically create a human being with it, that would be indentical to the owner of the cells used in the cloning. The problem here, is this, in today's world, is illegal in most countries/states and has never been fully tried before, though the process has been thought up of or there wouldn't be info here. Ok my bad, the first type of cloning, isn't through the natural birth of twins, misread that.
That cloning is used and being experimented on for progress in the medicene field. Therapeutic cloning was attempted once, but came out as a really bad failure, it was a human animal hyrbid, involved a man and a cow, to see the possibilities, failed.
Scientists have also messed around for embryo cells in cloning for possible medicene and health advancements, but...that's where I'm stuck. Since this is such a vague topic, since Art will not look like one person, but many because of all of the cloning lines in his blood stream. I'm just not sure of how to go about this, maybe use something with the stem cells...? Please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this.
Note from moderator: edited to create [TOPIC].
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52,801 / 50,000
Sep 29, 2008 - 17 27
Does your story need to have the explanation of cloning procedures found in reality? If not, it seems like the obvious answer is that they simply took different DNA strands from each person to make a "perfect embryo" or whatever the beginning stages of the cloning procedure is.
50,965 / 50,000
Sep 29, 2008 - 18 19
There is some research going on about "non-embroyonic" stem cells but the bad stigma that the term "stem cell research" gets is stifling that field area as well.
----------Your character, in my opinion, sounds less like "cloning" than it is good old fashioned "gene splicing" in which DNA "fragments" are cut out and spliced together into a whole strand. This is already being done at the moment with bacteria and with, of course, genetically altered food. It would essentially being created an empty egg cell (sucking out the DNA that already exists within it) and injecting the heavily modified strand. Trial and error for a few couple hundred dozen fertilized eggs and you'll have a winner.
Ethical by today's standards? Heck no but yoiur story doesn't take place in today does it? To work around premature aging, you could have the DNA taken from an infant but then you have to wonder why they decided to take that DNA in the first place.
In your dreams....anything is possible.
50,075 / 50,000
Sep 29, 2008 - 18 31
Thanks both of you guys...I think I'll research more on that gene splicing, because that'd be easier to work with, because of how vague the human cloning field is anymore. But I also read up on something.
http://health.howstuffworks.com/extracellular-matrix.htm
I could also put this to use.
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Sep 29, 2008 - 18 34
The first thing I'll say is that you might need to be careful with your terminology. 'Cloning' tends to imply a copy of a specific (single) person or organism. What you're describing sounds more like genetic manipulation or genetic engineering. Or, selective breeding. To avoid confusing a reader, it would be worth explaining what you mean by cloning.
Also, a lot depends on the desired outcome. Was the DNA from the various donors thrown together to see what would happen, or was the combination of features controlled? (For example, mixing the DNA of a thug and Einstein randomly might give you a stupid guy with frizzy white hair, but if you want a muscled genius, you're better off controlling which features are taken from whom.)
If you're going for the latter, you're talking about direct manipulation of the genetic code - splicing it together, turning certain base pairs on and off, that kind of thing. That would be done within a cell, and you could probably do it within a fertilised egg (or the desired DNA string could be implanted in an empty egg, real or artificial).
Ultimately, it depends on what end result you're after and how much detail you really need to go into. Hope that helps!
----------~Mel
co-ML for Brisbane, Australia
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17,218 / 50,000
Sep 29, 2008 - 18 39
From a sci-fi angle, I usually explain away premature aging by saying that during the gene splicing process they inject a crapload of telomerase into the newly formed cell.
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Sep 29, 2008 - 19 07
Thanks, that really helps a lot too. I don't believe I'll go with the term 'cloning'. Since that is almost always taken as an exact copy of a person, which isn't what he is. Not truly. I'll probably go with feature control, since the part they wished to develop the most was his mind, without making him look like a freak with so many genetics meshed together, it'd be an odd sight.
Thanks you guys. ^^ Whew...I have a lot to research and think about now.
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2,000 / 50,000
Oct 2, 2008 - 17 47
Can I ask a question about Cloning too?
My cloning is more fictional, like Star Wars, or something else. Not really scientificly realistic, but It's in a Super-high tech world, so it doesn't have to make complete sense.
So, I was thinking about having freedoms, but also rules.
Unrealistic: You just need DNA, and then you can make the Copy from that.
Realistic: The copy has no memory of the original
Unrealistic: Brains, hearts, skin, and all organs are fully working, and next to perfect.
Realistic: Genetic disorders are all matching the original
Unrealistic: The copies have sort of feelings, and think they are real.
Realistic: Their enviroment effects them, and they have no real, well, life. (I am religeous, and I believe in the worth of souls, but I'm going to probably leave that subject out, in case I accidently write against my own beliefs while writing a fiction.)
Yeah, that's all I can think of at the moment. So, Is it too sci-fi to be a romance? (I'm bringing in a romance between a Man and a clone girl.)
55,194 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2008 - 11 32
Cloning is a great base technology, but you might want to tweak the idea. A "clone" is always an exact copy; better to say "a bio-engineered vat body" or some such. (I'd also recommend you take a peek at David Brin's "Kiln People", just for variant ideas.)
You might also want to come up with a term for it. Even something generic and simple as "bioform" works; it lets the reader know the character is fabricated, but not out of nuts & bolts....
Is his brain organic also? Or computerized?
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52,088 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2008 - 12 52
Have you ever read Cyteen, by CJ Cherryh? That is based in human genetic engineering and they born out of artificial womb tanks and the whole story is based around the ideas.
----------Think of black water.
Think up a white sky.
Think up a boat.
Think of BLOOGS blowing by.
-T. Geisel
50,075 / 50,000
Dec 12, 2008 - 20 37
You might also want to come up with a term for it. Even something generic and simple as "bioform" works; it lets the reader know the character is fabricated, but not out of nuts & bolts....
Is his brain organic also? Or computerized?
Yes his brain is organic, they have installed computerized parts in case he decides to snap under pressure and become dangerous. But that's where the controversy of him having feelings and being real.
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Dec 13, 2008 - 11 39
Why do you say this? I'm not trying to be provocative, I literally don't understand. I have always viewed the soul as an ephemeral thing, qutie separate from the ability to think or be sapient. Humans have souls; animals don't. Yet both think and are self-aware.
So as I see it, whether you're cloned or not, you'll have feelings and all the other abilities that humans are endowed with.
Why wouldn't a clone have feelings? Why wouldn't a clone (raised from an infant-ish state by someone and experiencing all the things that you and I experience) feel he is real?
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50,874 / 50,000
Dec 17, 2008 - 11 00
I totally disagree: I think animals have souls, but don't really think. As such, if you wanted to take a more "animalistic" approach to a clone, you would have to make them fairly robotic and unthinking, rather than trying to pretend they don't have souls and aren't "real".
Ultimately, though, I'm pretty sure that any clone would be a normal human being -- and since so many things influence humans, clones that have the exact same DNA might not think like each other or even look like each other.
Cloning is really unreliable to actually use, though; it is vague, there's stigma associated with it, and the clones probably wouldn't react like "clones" -- ie wouldn't be identical, perfect "copies."
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