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new species - how long before we play 'god'?
- Thread starter bwanaaa
- Start date
The difference between different subspecies is merely incidental. Caucasians and Africans could be considered different subspecies of Homo sapiens, as they have some distinctive characteristics. However, they can interbreed and produce a child which can't be categorized cleanly into either subspecies.
I can imagine the scopes trial all over again...
Can you imagine if a genetic polymorphism present only in chimps is also found in a human african subpopulation?
personally, i think i might like the improved oxygen carrying capacity that the hemoglobin of certain mammals have. If I had a bone marrow transplant from such a specially prepared 'immunologically nude porpoise', i too would be able to swim under water for longer periods-something i already enjoy.
all the more reason that animals should be protected by the same laws that protect humans.--but that sounds crazy tho.
Can you imagine if a genetic polymorphism present only in chimps is also found in a human african subpopulation?
personally, i think i might like the improved oxygen carrying capacity that the hemoglobin of certain mammals have. If I had a bone marrow transplant from such a specially prepared 'immunologically nude porpoise', i too would be able to swim under water for longer periods-something i already enjoy.
all the more reason that animals should be protected by the same laws that protect humans.--but that sounds crazy tho.
Pudgygiant
Senior member
Tell that to the Great Dane trying to hump the chihuahua in front of my house.
rjain,
infant size correlates more with metabolic disorders (gestational diabetes) than race. In fact, in thiis day and age, there is NO benefit to even thinking about race in ANY context. We as a world have decided to be inclusive, not exclusive, that means minimizing any differences between people. My favorite technology is that described by Kurzweil-that of 'biomems' biologic microscopic electromechanical devices. Imagiine injecting a couple million microscopic robots the size of red blood cells into the vein of a patient. Today, real time telemetry of biologic properties is possible (no blood tests for patients in the hospital). In the near future when the biomems have more advanced functions-ability to interact with nerve cells and networkability with each other, they could function to increase human brain function. Imagine, retarded people could be made normal. No, I am not being rude to you, this is almost a verbatim quote from Kurzweil.
infant size correlates more with metabolic disorders (gestational diabetes) than race. In fact, in thiis day and age, there is NO benefit to even thinking about race in ANY context. We as a world have decided to be inclusive, not exclusive, that means minimizing any differences between people. My favorite technology is that described by Kurzweil-that of 'biomems' biologic microscopic electromechanical devices. Imagiine injecting a couple million microscopic robots the size of red blood cells into the vein of a patient. Today, real time telemetry of biologic properties is possible (no blood tests for patients in the hospital). In the near future when the biomems have more advanced functions-ability to interact with nerve cells and networkability with each other, they could function to increase human brain function. Imagine, retarded people could be made normal. No, I am not being rude to you, this is almost a verbatim quote from Kurzweil.
Erm... race DOES make a difference, but of course it's not everything. Race is basically similar to subspecies. That's all I was saying. The dynamics of both are very close. I wasn't making any racial comment. I'm not talking about extremely abnormal infant sizes, but normal sizes for one race compared to normal for another. If you're claiming that, for example, Thai people are as tall as Germans on the average, I'd like to see some evidence to back that up.
I have no idea what your Kurzweil comment is about.
I have no idea what your Kurzweil comment is about.
we already are. transgenic animals are common place in science. So long as introduced or deleted genes are not embryonic lethal, they can and are being made. In humans, we currently don't have the necessary technology or imperative from a political standpoint to make transgenics; that is far and beyond more serious than simple cloning or ES cell research. Gene therapy is the way around many of the ethical issues and will probably be the best way to introduce designer genes into human subjects.
I read it in a book but I'll try to find it for rjain. I was wrong about using chimp genes they used a gene from a human being and put in the fly. Theis geneis responsible for the formation of the central nervous system. They didn't flip the backbone they used a human gene to form the central nervous system in a fly. Heres the passage form the book Genome by Matt Ridley:
"And one of the descendants of the common ancestor took walking on its stomach while the other to walking on its back. W may never know which one was 'the right way up', but we do know that there was a right way up, because we know the dorsalising and ventralising genes predate the split between lineages. Pause, for a second, to pay homage to a great Frenchman, Etienne Geoffroy St Hilarie, who first guessed this fact in 1822, from observing the way embryos develop in different animals and from the fact that the central nervous system of a insect lies along its back. Bold conjecture was subjected to much ridicule in the inerviening 175 year, and conventional wisdom accreted round a different hypothesis, that the nervous systesms of the two kinds of animals were independently evolved. But he was absolutely right.
Indeed, so close are the similarities between genes that genetisicts can now do, almost routinely, and experiment so incredible that it boggles the mind. They can knock out the gene in a fly by deliberately mutating it, replace it by genetic engineering with the equivalent gene from a human being and grow a normal fly. The technique is known as genetic rescue. Human Hox genes can rescue their fly equivalents, as can OTX and EMX genes. Inded, they work so well that it is often impossible to tell which flies have been rescued with human genes and which with fly genes."
"And one of the descendants of the common ancestor took walking on its stomach while the other to walking on its back. W may never know which one was 'the right way up', but we do know that there was a right way up, because we know the dorsalising and ventralising genes predate the split between lineages. Pause, for a second, to pay homage to a great Frenchman, Etienne Geoffroy St Hilarie, who first guessed this fact in 1822, from observing the way embryos develop in different animals and from the fact that the central nervous system of a insect lies along its back. Bold conjecture was subjected to much ridicule in the inerviening 175 year, and conventional wisdom accreted round a different hypothesis, that the nervous systesms of the two kinds of animals were independently evolved. But he was absolutely right.
Indeed, so close are the similarities between genes that genetisicts can now do, almost routinely, and experiment so incredible that it boggles the mind. They can knock out the gene in a fly by deliberately mutating it, replace it by genetic engineering with the equivalent gene from a human being and grow a normal fly. The technique is known as genetic rescue. Human Hox genes can rescue their fly equivalents, as can OTX and EMX genes. Inded, they work so well that it is often impossible to tell which flies have been rescued with human genes and which with fly genes."
Pudgygiant
Senior member
What's that quote from the simpsons...
Something like- (bear with me, I haven't seen this episode more than twice)
Homer- How dare you play god!
Scientist- Tell that to the octoparrot over there.
Octoparrot- Aawk! Polly shouldn't be!
Something like- (bear with me, I haven't seen this episode more than twice)
Homer- How dare you play god!
Scientist- Tell that to the octoparrot over there.
Octoparrot- Aawk! Polly shouldn't be!
RelaxTheMind
Platinum Member
This technology is reffered to as nanotechnology. Programming little computers/machines at the atomic level. Forming molecules themselves into circuit boards. They would produce what they would call "blanks" and take one or two to program and they would reproduce much like bacteria would.
Main reason why they cant really pursue it is because it would change EVERY single thing on earth basically. Like Star Trek? you would be able to go to a machine and want a martini and push a button then martini comes out. Maybe this should be a new thread because I want to know more about what people think about it.
RTM
I don't know when, but eventually genetics will be nothing more than another high level programming language (probably an object oriented one if the C++ fanantics have there way...). Right now, we are just scratching the surface of gentics and only figuring out the simpliest genes. We will learn more and more until we actually understand it. Baring God coming down and squashing us like a bunch of flies of course...
Personally, I REALLY hope this day hurries the heck up and gets here! I WANT a small, 3 foot long fire breathing dragon! Red or black would do. Heck, I would take up smoking cigars so he could sit on my shoulder and light them for me!
Of course, the big down side to figuring it out is some idiot will make a super virus or bacteria (or combination of the two) just to see if he can. It WILL get loose and wipe out most of the living things on the planet. But, that is also the course of human development. It does not matter what we develop, someone will VERY QUICKLY put it to work trying to kill other humans. It's been that way since the rock.
Personally, I REALLY hope this day hurries the heck up and gets here! I WANT a small, 3 foot long fire breathing dragon! Red or black would do. Heck, I would take up smoking cigars so he could sit on my shoulder and light them for me!
Of course, the big down side to figuring it out is some idiot will make a super virus or bacteria (or combination of the two) just to see if he can. It WILL get loose and wipe out most of the living things on the planet. But, that is also the course of human development. It does not matter what we develop, someone will VERY QUICKLY put it to work trying to kill other humans. It's been that way since the rock.
Genetics is actually a very low-level programming language, on par with machine code, except that it's not procedural. You define a protein sequence and then you have to make sure that the rest of the machinery folds it and attaches sugars and lipids to it to make it as active as you desire.
If someone can come up with a deadly virus, we can come up with antiviral agents, too.
The "entire" X/Y chromosome is also different in chimps. What you're asking is like asking if an apple and an orange are more different than an apple skin and an apple seed.
Genetic superiority doesn't exist. A human can't survive in the depths of a hot spring and the bacteria that live in the hot spring will be outbred by the E. coli living in your stomach.
If someone can come up with a deadly virus, we can come up with antiviral agents, too.
The "entire" X/Y chromosome is also different in chimps. What you're asking is like asking if an apple and an orange are more different than an apple skin and an apple seed.
Genetic superiority doesn't exist. A human can't survive in the depths of a hot spring and the bacteria that live in the hot spring will be outbred by the E. coli living in your stomach.
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