To clone or not to clone -- or, 'Dolly, meet Molly' Analysis/Commentary Personally, I don't find human clones a threat. So much of what passes for morality boils down to philosophy according to Steven Spielberg or to your mother-in-law. The mainstream indoctrinates itself into a morality of norms that makes an Egyptian sense -- an ongoing, frozen, pyramidal sense -- but offers neither sense nor benefits to the bearer. And often it is just gossipy preaching, or a wail from the gut in reaction to misgivings of the mind. History tends to provide instances of morality -- universal progress -- that go beyond shallow human olifactory responses or kneejerk reactions. The Romans of the age of Augustus felt they were protecting the republic and the time-hallowed rules of their forebears when they erected the empire. They submitted to several hundred years of central dictatorship (a system that foreshadows modern nationalism), but so doing forged a form of new form of confederated government -- one that closely resembles our own.Perhaps cloning isn't as scary as repeating the past. Biotech, like infotech, takes us beyond our villages, beyond our often infantile, tribal, and parochial views, into realms that are scary and adult. No hocus-pocus, village priest, or shaman to pull us out of this juncture. We must either go forward or destroy the lab like the crazed villagers in a Frankenstein movie. Paul Alexander, writing in Wired, explains that for many scientists human cloning simply represents a first. What will follow, they haven't a clue. Well, maybe they have a clue, but it isn't enough. For billions of years, life has been pretty haphazard, producing common specimens. Today we move toward the new and improved -- the better breed of bear, Boo-boo, my boy. Will putting order in the recipe prove to humanity's advantage? Since the baby boom and the re-engineered food change, humans have been undergoing drastic change. They have been getting bigger, more babyish looking, getting their periods sooner (if we are women), etc. Yet, athletes run faster, grandfathers live longer, and death in general takes extended vacations. Sure, man has invented new pollutants and carcinogens, but hey, two steps forward and one step backward is still progress. This is only to say that like the Romans, we must accept some loss of "freedom" if we want to enjoy the benefits of living under law, reason, and peace. And when you stop to think about it, natural evolution has been the source of our intraspecific competition (some call it killing), our cultural superstitions about racial superiority and inferiority, and the blueprint for many a pattern of ignorant repetition. The test of time is the pyramid-builders' yardstick for progress. But who needs pyramids, anyway? And why not fidget intelligently with life, rather than let it experiment on itself randomly? Dolly, meet Molly, Polly, Holly, or even Rollo. Rollo. Yeah, I like that. January 31, 2001