MTV promotes eugenics??!!

[proudparent7]

My son just showed me a new internet program being run by MTV. It's called "Space Colony One" and it claims to be some sort of eugenics service meant to establish a human embryo bank. The ad solicits potential participants to send a hair sample to MTV to be screened for genetic fitness to breed… !

I suspect that this is a hoax of some kind, but even so, the message is what disturbs me. Jackass and Tom Green is one thing, but to seriously suggest that we should begin selectively breeding our youngsters according to criteria set by MTV is outrageous.

www dot spacecolonyone dot net

 

[Konkurrent]

I don't see any claims of affiliation to MTV on their website, and I can't find any reference to it on MTV's website.

Why do you think it's being run by MTV?

 

[proudparent7]

I don't see any claims of affiliation to MTV on their website, and I can't find any reference to it on MTV's website.

Why do you think it's being run by MTV?

i can't post links cause i'm new,

but at

www dot digitalincubator dot net

space colony one is listed as one of their projects. and on the instructions page at spacecolonyone dot net it's an mtv address they are asking people to send hair samples too...

 

[TheMissus]

And it could be a joke with a phony address.

 

[Konkurrent]

I call troll on this.

Fact: Nowhere on MTV's websit or mtvU's website does anything related to "Space Colony One" appear. It exists only at the "spacecolonyone" and "digitalincubator" addresses.

Fact: Having "mtvU.com" in your address doesn't make you affiliated with MTV. I could have you send mail to Gully Bell and include my street address and it would still get here. (For the folks on the short bus, my name is not Gully Bell.)


It is not a serious website.

 

[kopilo]

Don't call troll, the OP may just have been told false information.

EDIT: I just went to mtvU.com in firefox right-clicked and selected 'view page info' -> 'Links' and neither space colony one nor digitalincubator was included in the list.

 

[proudparent7]

As it's linked from the digital incubator site, which seems to be a legitimate mtvU project (a grant given to college kids by cisco and mtvU) I think the mtv connection is real.

mtvu.com -> win -> digital incubator

however the comments above are probably reasonable: it's probably a marketing ploy of some sort. sorry for the trolling if it turns out to be trolling...

 

[wanderingone]

space colony one is part an mtvu grant given to a U of Washington student -

DXARTS STUDENT WINS MTVU AWARD
April 2006
An anonymous DXARTS student has won an mtvU/Cisco Systems Digital Incubator Award for his plans to digitize his consciousness and upload it onto the internet. The Incubator awards, each worth up to $25,000, were granted to fund and “incubate” college students pioneering the future of broadband programming. More information can be found at http://www.mtvu.com/on_mtvu/digital_incubator/video/

http://www.washington.edu/dxarts/news_news.php

 

[Konkurrent]

As it's linked from the digital incubator site, which seems to be a legitimate mtvU project

I can make a website that "seems" to be a legitimate part of whatever you like. The test is whether the parent thing actually acknowledges it.

A grant awarded to "An anonymous DXARTS student [who] ... plans to digitize his consciousness and upload it onto the internet." is not the same thing as a project to exersize eugenics.

I don't really see the giver of a grant being entirely cool with someone taking their money and then using it for something else.

 

[wanderingone]

I don't really see the giver of a grant being entirely cool with someone taking their money and then using it for something else.

I don't guess the giver of the grant has a problem with the use of the grant for a genetics project-since mtvu and cisco systems called it a social engineering project in their press release

SFCS - University of Washington​

The Society for the Future Colonization of Space is a social engineering project dedicated to
cultivating genetically ideal space colonization crews through computer-aided matching and
breeding over several generations.​

Scheduled launch:​

​

​

July ​

http://www.mtvu.com/on_mtvu/digital_incubator/video/center/pdf/Digital_Incubator_Winners.pdf​

 

[Konkurrent]

Ah, well that's not eugenics. It's not real.

 

[wanderingone]

Ah, well that's not eugenics. It's not real.

you mean you can't fund real genetics research with $25,000???!!!!

 

[Konkurrent]

Not unless you're talking about that human genome resequencer I have in the basement. Built it myself out of bottle caps, part of a vending machine, and an old lawnmower. The only problem is that it only takes $25,000 bills...

 

[Vylo]

While eugenics has been grossly abused in the past, I don't see it as something to be completely abhored.

 

[[serious]]

Judging from the other winners, my guess is it's more joke than anything.

 

[Konkurrent]

It's a mental exercise, from what I can see. It's a programming challenge - to create a computer application that could predictively optimize a population starting with a limited gene pool.

In reality this would be an important ability if we were to start colonizing distant worlds. There's only so many people you can squeeze into a space ship, so you can't take too narrow a gene pool or you could end up with some dangerous genetic inbreeding.

But seeing as the actual application of this system is laughably science fiction at this time, I'd have to say it's pretty clearly not meant as a serious project. I'm sure they intend to create the program that will do the number crunching, but the space ship is probably a bit outside their budget.

 

[proudparent7]

Haha, now my son wants to go to the University of Washington for that DXARTS program. Sheesh.