There is an universal belief that no two persons are alike. Each one of us is unique in our physical makeup, mental abilities, personality traits, our life experience, and so on. A news article I read in National Post recently has weakened my belief that we are unique in this world. It is not my concern whether the lady Ms. Bernann McKinney was really Ms. Joyce McKinney in disguise or the former is the clone of the latter as the title of the article suggests.

But what interested me was that she paid $50,000 to clone her dead dog Booger and became a proud owner of five black puppies cloned from it. That reminded me how close we have come to reality from the science fiction movie, The Sixth Day in which Arnold Schwarzenegger starred with his clone(??!!) Do you remember in the movie there is this pet shop where ‘made to order’ pets can be picked up by their proud owners?

Well it has become a reality now and from now on, at least for those who can afford, they need never have to suffer any loss or tragedy on the demise of their pets. In one of his comedy shows the late George Carlin makes fun of pet lovers who bring home a pet and shower it with all their love and tender care. He said that they really have brought home a tragedy while they may think it to be a bundle of joy. His reasoning was that one day or the other the pet has to face its demise and that will be before its owner passes away. Sorry George, for once you are proved wrong.

Human Cloning

This story also made me wonder whether human cloning too is going on illegally somewhere on the high seas? Let us be optimistic that currently there is no large scale human cloning. I said optimistic because the unique talents that we develop as we go along, is our only insurance in this uncertain job market. Already we have enough competition and we stand even less chance if our clones start competing against us. Don’t you agree?

Talking of uniqueness, did you see Robert Muraine’s audition in the TV program ‘So you think you can dance?’ Of course the judges and the audience where blown away by the awesome performance of Bob. But one of the judges scored his performance to be so unique that he would have difficulty approving Bob to the next level of the competition. For a moment I too was thinking this young man has wasted a part of his life learning something too unique. But this time I was proved wrong.

Look at the recent IKEA commercial in which Bob replicates his success so well and I am sure he must have made a ton of money doing this commercial. As of this date no one in the world can do what Robert Muraine has done and do you understand now why I stress developing our unique talents and also why I fear my clone ?