Who is for or against manipulating matter at the molecular level and at a higher level? And what are your reasons why you would be for or against it? Thanks.

I am for it, and do so regularly. For example:

manipulating matter on the molecular level:
I breath in O2 molecules and ruthlessly crush them together with other elements to make new molecules during cellular respiration.
I digest food, heedlessly breaking up complex molecules into simpler molecules.
I heat things in microwaves, causing countless chemical changes.
I utilize an internal combustion engine in my automobile.

manipulating matter on a higher than molecular level
I move objects regularly every day.

I enjoy being alive.

Also, pretty much every one of my business and leisure activities requires the manipulation of matter.



...I imagine you're getting at something a lot more specific than "manipulation of matter." Spit it out, already.

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The pedigree of honey
Does not concern the bee;
A clover, any time, to him
Is aristocracy. ~Emily Dickinson

Your point of view is well taken. I believe there is a single force, rather than the four forces that physicist refer to gravitational, electromagnetic, the weak, and the strong, responsible for the creation of matter and all things living and nonliving. This force is present throughout the universe, what happens when and if we encounter a world similar to that of earth with "alien" creatures living on it? Do we colonize the new world and coexist with the "alien" life forms or leave the life forms as they exist as stated in the prime directive in Star Trek? If we try to coexist with the "aliens" surely humans will be affected in some way, just as a criminal does not leave a crime scene without influencing it. What is the truth? Are people able to handle the realization that there are other living life forms in the universe?

Neat.

A lot depends on their reaction to us. Not knowing that, here's my guess about what we try to do and in what order:

1) Study them.
2) Communicate with them.
3) Meet them.
4) Trade with them.
5) Spy on them.
6) Make treaties with them.

if they are substantially weaker than us:
7) Slowly take over their resources. Or, if they fight us, quickly take over their resources.

if they are roughly as strong as us:
7) Establish bases/embassies on their planet; lots more trading (legal and otherwise), spying, and diplomacy.

if they are substantially stronger than us:
7) Massively build up our military, possibly coalescing the whole planet under one government.

8) We influence eachother's cultures.
9) Some genetic crosspollination if possible.

I don't know, and yes, though most people won't give two shits about it until it's actually an issue.

__________________
The pedigree of honey
Does not concern the bee;
A clover, any time, to him
Is aristocracy. ~Emily Dickinson

UMM ERRR, NM I need a few more drinks before I respond!

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Charles_Main

"Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct."
Thomas Jefferson

"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition."
Thomas Jefferson

whatcha dranking on? They just legalized Absinthe in SC, so I'll be riding down that rocky road tomorrow when I finish with my summer research project.

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Nomdeplume-"you are just upset because I fuck all you lefties up the ass without lube."

if they can't speak english, fuck 'em.

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si senora !

__________________
"Some men eventually stumble over the truth but they usually pick themselves up and walk on as if nothing ever happened."
-Winston Churchill

"But though there is no difference in this respect between the best demagogue and the worst, both of them having to present their cases equally in terms of melodrama, there is all the difference in the world between the statesman who is humbugging the people into allowing him to do the will of God, in whatever disguise it may come to him, and one who is humbugging them into furthering his personal ambition and the commercial interests of the plutocrats who own the newspapers and support him on reciprocal terms."
-George Bernard Shaw

What if we just used our future technology to create a new living human being with the characteristics that we desired? Would that be good or bad?

And I'm not talking about Frankenstein. But maybe a futuristic Frankenstein or Ms. Frankenstein.

Who is this "we" you speak of ? If you belong to certain factions I'm familiar with it's a definate NO

__________________
"Some men eventually stumble over the truth but they usually pick themselves up and walk on as if nothing ever happened."
-Winston Churchill

"But though there is no difference in this respect between the best demagogue and the worst, both of them having to present their cases equally in terms of melodrama, there is all the difference in the world between the statesman who is humbugging the people into allowing him to do the will of God, in whatever disguise it may come to him, and one who is humbugging them into furthering his personal ambition and the commercial interests of the plutocrats who own the newspapers and support him on reciprocal terms."
-George Bernard Shaw

When I say "we" I mean Americans. If you are not a American, then "we" refers to people in general. I would have to vote the opposite and say YES to manipulating matter at the molecular level. However, I am one in several billion people with this opinion, so I may be outvoted.

Why do you imagine that anyone would be opposed to this science?

Isn't every chemical reaction really just the manipulation of matter on the molecular level?