Okay, I'm rather tired from having just written an exam, so
consider this a potential rant warning, okay?

Ranma Al'Thor wrote:

On Fri, 3 Oct 1997, David Johnston wrote:

Is this the official version of things?      

I'm pretty sure this is what the Manga states.

	And the anime, as well.

Nor, to my understanding does it state that anyone in the future worships
Serenity.  She's the Queen, but then Victoria was a queen and no
worshipped her.  (I hope)

	No, but some Pirates in Penzance are reported to have given up
their trade when charged to surrender in the name of Her Majesty the
Queen.

	(Wow, I made a funny.  I must be in better shape than I thought.)

However, it's far from unreasonable for there to be a Serenity
cult.  After all, she has vast supernatural power, virtually 
unquestionable benevolence, innately superhuman charisma and is 
personally integral to saving the world however many times.  
For a while there was a cult who worshipped Michael Jackson.
Why not Serenity?

	Congratulations, you have correctly described the psychology of 
a typical member of the Cult of Serenity, AD 2937.

While we're on the subject though, I was rather amused by one of the
social theories in "Together Again".  That nobody owns their genes,
but merely keeps them in trust.  I take it birth control is illegal
there?  In fact, given that they clone people and duplicate their
memories without prior consent, and then charge the resultant 
duplicates for the privilege, it seems clear that they think that

	EEEEEEEEH.

	Whose memory in Together Again was duplicated without prior
consent?  Priss?  Nope.  Noa?  Nope.  Megumi?  Maybe, but you don't know
for sure, do you?  I haven't told her story yet.

	And no, birth control isn't illegal there.

a person owns neither their body, nor even their mind.  De facto,
they've legalised slavery.  In fact, sufficiently ruthless
application of the principle of TINSTAAFL would easily allow someone
to grow a person and keep them indentured indefinitely for a
longer than human lifespan.  Ah, the utopian ideals of the future.

	Neighbor, if I have ever given you the impression that I think
that my vision of Crystal Tokyo is an utopian society, I sincerely
apologize.  It's not.  It's not *supposed* to be.  I don't *believe* in
utopias, period.  Whenever anyone starts talking about how they have
achieved perfection in *anything*, I immediately start looking for the
catch.

	Cloning, as it works in the Together Again universe, would *not*
"easily allow someone to grow a person and and keep them indentured
indefinitely for a longer than human lifespan."  First of all, while you
can force grow a human body to maturity in about a week, what you get is
an adult with the mind of an infant.  Moreover, there is no way in hell
that the total cost of growing a clone (including braintaping) would be
enough to indenture someone for the length of the 250-year lifespan of a
typical inhabitant of the Crystal Realm.  I don't know exactly how much it
would cost, but at a minimum garnishee rate (say 1 cent on every dollar
earned) on a minimum wage job (say working at a Burger Joint), the clone
would be *out* of debt within a *year* at the outside.

	Replace the braintaping expense with, for instance, the price of
educating a clone to adulthood, and it gets a lot longer.  But there are
two little segments of the law that you should be aware of.

	1.  It is illegal to grow a clone of an individual past the age of
any existing memory records of that individual.  If a braintape is
available but not used in the process, the clone cannot be grown past the
"newborn" stage.  (Does it happen?  Yes, but murder is illegal too, you
see.)

	2.  A legal infant (one who cannot demonstrate his or her maturity
in an examination) is *not* responsible for the costs of his or her
upbringing.  So, for example, if you were to grow a clone to adulthood for
the purposes of using him as a slave, after you were caught, you would be
expected to pay for your "child's" care and upbringing.  You could *not*
transfer this burden onto the clone.

	I could go on, but this isn't alt.ethics.cloning -- Tybalt is
probably annoyed enough by this thread as it is. 

Chris Davies.