atw: Re: Clone vs Clone

Brian A Clarke:
On Wed, 20 Sep 2006 20:08:05 +1000,  you wrote:
> Sorry Peter,
>
> Computers bear so little resemblance to the mechanisms of RNA
> and DNA that I am surprised that anyone would make such a
> claim. But then, I'm continuously surprised at how ignorant
> even our best media journalists are about anything scientific.
>
> My own view is that to talk of cloning and computing in the
> same sentence, let alone the same breath, is to extend a
> metaphor beyond its ballistic limit.
>

Sorry, Brian:

The history of the development of language is full of examples of
metaphors extended from one area of knowledge to another 
without precise regard for the detailed operations 
involved.  In fact, the strength of a metaphor or simile often
depends very considerably on the fact that the original meaning is quite
different from the extended metaphorical meaning -- while being 
interestingly similar.  

Try a touch of the Metaphysical school of English poetry for a host of 
examples...
... let alone The Bard himself. 

As for cross-cultural issues, one might be equally surprised at how limited
the knowledge of some people of scientific and other bents can be about the
history and development of their own language.
    
And of course, genetics as a relatively new science, has at times 
borrowed English language terms from other areas and applied them
in a similarly "exact yet inexact" manner...   

Don't see why there's any need to be precious about whether
the process of "ghosting"  (now there's another a metaphor) or
"mirroring" (yet another) actually works via DNA or RNA. 

I think it's safe to assume that not many people are going to think
recombination is going on on the disks involved, just as not many
of us are going to think there's grass in a "bacterial lawn", sand
or rocks (or even "beads" or "amber" in a DNA "strand".   

Meanwhile,  "replication" in a genetic sense is about
350 years younger than its more general meaning of reproduction, and
cloning was going on and known about quite a time before Messrs 
Crick and Watson came up with a double helix.  What is genetic
"cloning" itself other than a metaphor drawn from botany and the
Greek word for a 'twig"?   

And in the meantime, back on the disk, the difficulty with some terms 
(such as copying and mirroring ) is that they do not convey the full meaning of 
the
results of the process Nikki is trying to write about...     Perhaps her
only answer is to use qualifiers on top of another term....  but 
there's every chance that in a decade, it will be an everyday matter
to refer to a disk clone, and not run the risk of Right to Lifers and similar
religiosities conducting deep and meaningful inquiries into legislating
them out of existence...

--Peter M






  
  




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