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Comments (69)

• vitally3643
  Since we've reached this point, it seems like the next logical step would be to standardize the genomes allowed just like racing standardizes the vehicles (to a point, I know).It seems so much less interesting for the competition to devolve to "who can afford the best horse genome" instead of the actual skill and ability of the player. Since we're already cloning the horses, just force everyone to use the same horse and compete on skill instead of money.This is one of the many reasons I find modern "pro" sports so dreadfully uninteresting. The competition has next to nothing to do with how good the player is, and everything to do with how far their fabulously wealthy sponsor can push the rules without "technically" cheating.
• thot_experiment
  I hope they're aware of this:https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00945-7You can't clone forever.
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  walrus01
  For a brief moment I thought this would be about something like robotic polo ponies, and considered the idea that four-legged high agility, high endurance robots had advanced significantly without me noticing.
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  didibus
  The thing is, what if there's an even better horse out there? Once you get on the cloning bandwagon, don't you also lock yourself out of looking/evolving an even better horse?
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  andai
  >“It was the same,” he recalls. “Same movements, same head.... I couldn’t believe it.”My grandpa said the same thing, first time he saw me.
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  foobar1962
  Perhaps Polo will end up like competitive sailing with one-design classes based on the clone of horse. "Measurement" would be a blood test for drugs and dna.
• pfdietz
  This reminds me of a poem in Analog Yearbook 2 (1978) by Jeff Rovin, with the title "The Horse That Jack Built".Science fiction becomes science fact every day.
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  apt-apt-apt-apt
  Humans can likely be cloned too.Imagine 10,000 Albert Einsteins and John von Neumanns working together with modern AI on medical, scientific, and societal issues.Though there could be an Evil Einstein due to upbringing or something.
• jofzar
  Surprised that the legal drama part of this wasn't discussed, it's how I first heard about thishttps://youtu.be/VARJnzhVryc
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  connorboyle
  Another Argentina/cloning-connected story is that President Javier Milei cloned his dog Conan at least four times: https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-04-26/the-myst...The stories make me wonder if Argentina is a cloning hotspot, though I may be reading too much into two stories.
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  Garlef
  > At the slightest touch of the reins, he felt a familiarity that shook him...Ah... Some good, old, pre-AI journalism slop.Oh the countless times a universities press release has been turned into four pages describing the smell of coffee some scientist inhales on their way through campus...
• deadbabe
  Given the way the world is now, I will not be surprised if full human cloning and replica people is a thing at some point in my lifetime, just like horses.
• nxy
  [dead]
• aaron695
  [dead]
• anon
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