Bill Nye Knows Just What He'd Do With An Invisibility Cloak&#8212And A Time Machine

EXCLUSIVE: Bill Nye Talks Time Travel, Robot Sex, Cloning & More
Bill Nye arrives at "Hub Network's First Annual Halloween Bash" on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013, at the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica, Calif. The star-studded special will be broadcasted on the Hub Network on Saturday Oct. 26, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision for the Hub/AP Images)
Bill Nye arrives at "Hub Network's First Annual Halloween Bash" on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013, at the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica, Calif. The star-studded special will be broadcasted on the Hub Network on Saturday Oct. 26, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision for the Hub/AP Images)

Bill Nye is known for many things, but being reticent isn't one of them. From the dangers of climate change to the economic impact of evolution denial, America's beloved "Science Guy" has spoken out on all sorts of science-related topics.

But what does Nye think about time travel and human cloning? What would he do with an invisibility cloak? What does he think about the morality of sex with a robot? We've never known--until now. Keep reading for Nye's responses to seven not-so-silly "hypotheticals" posed by HuffPost Science...

1. If you could reengineer the human body, what is one thing you would change? I'd separate the waste disposal outlets from the reproductive systems a little more. Be good to have more durable quadricep tendons, as well--a personal issue, I admit.

bill nye dancing
Bill Nye on 'Dancing With The Stars' earlier this year. He sustained a leg injury during the competition.

2. If you could clone one person, who would that be? Why him/her? I think you mean recreate with all the experiences and intellect of someone, who has already come into existence. I can't think of anyone, really. I am troubled by the notion that since we've discovered cloning, we perhaps could or should try cloning someone. A person is a result of a life lived with other people at a certain time in history. It's not a reproducible product.

Cloning a person is a bad idea, because the offspring would be one evolutionary step behind his or her contemporaries. The key feature of sexual reproduction is that we get an offspring that is inherently different from the parents. Germs and parasites, which (or who) reproduce at extraordinary speeds, can't quite deal with the new mixture of genes. My O my…

3. Imagine there's an open seat on the first mission to send humans to Mars. Would you sign up? It would depend on who's mounting the mission. A few of the proposals of late seem underfunded, to put it generously, and just unrealistic.

bill nye
This 1989 illustration from NASA shows artist's conception of a Mars outpost.

4. If time travel were possible, what day/era would you want to get to? Why? What would you do? Whom would you meet? I'd go for 250 years from now, after steps have been taken to address climate change and the world's human population has stabilized. I think my English would be intelligible that many years hence. I'd like to meet the human woman with the best smile and the best sense of humor on Earth. I claim that to have a good sense of humor, one has to be smart. A man can dream.

5. If you could be any animal but a human, which animal would you be and why? A well cared for dog.

6. If scientists were to create a real-life "invisibility cloak," how would you use it? I'd disrupt climate change denier meetings.

7. Would sex with a robot be cheating? In my view, we have sex robots already. Sex toys or "marital aids" are sold by the millions, to a large extent, as a substitute for cheating.

robot sex poll

Have any more questions you'd like to pose to Bill Nye? Post them in the comments section below.

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