[alicebot-aiethics] Ok, who would deny Hawking the first artificial body?

[Christopher Fahey [askROM]]

> Just curious, would anyone actually fight over who gets the 
> first artificial human body?

  I guarantee that the first artificial body will go to somebody with
enormous personal wealth. It will not be determined by any government or
public forum, any more than we will have any say as to which billionaire
will baloon around the world first. 

  This goes for the second, third, fourth, etc artificial bodies too. In
fact, cynic that I am, I imagine that a "Brave New World" scenario is
inevitable, with a ruling class of genetically engineered cyborgs all of
whom are descendants of today's billionaires. At the rate we're going, a
hundred years from now the difference between the lives of the very rich
(immortal, physically invulnerable) and the lives of the very poor
(diseased, opressed, and starving, as ever) will be staggering. 

-Cf

[christopher eli fahey]
art: www.graphpaper.com
science: www.askROM.com