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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
 Posted - 11/25/2008 : 21:56:41 [Permalink]
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We could teach them to ride the dinosaurs we will create by combining ostrich DNA with reptilian DNA. It'll make a swell show at Madison Square Garden. We'll clean up! 
Actually, good old Wiki has some really interesting insights and speculations. Scroll down to the topics labeled DNA and Extinction in this article. One of Wiki's better entries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal |
Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.
"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.) |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 11/25/2008 : 22:58:36 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by H. Humbert
Originally posted by HalfMooner
But hypothetical modern Neanderthals, had they "won," would not have any such compulsion to resurrect us. |
How do you figure that?
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As you wrote: | I don't think most people would be able to accept the end of the human species so easily. |
Defining "people" as hominids of one's own species, I agree. I suspect Neanderthals would likewise think species-centrically.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 11/25/2008 : 23:45:15 [Permalink]
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I'd be all for bringing back as many extinct species as possible through molecular techniques.
Not only can it gives us some insights about the finer point of the evolution of internal organs but, frankly, it will be pretty cool to go to a reservation to see some real life mammoth...
I set the limit for the human species, however. Homo neanderthalis are like our little cousins. |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 11/26/2008 : 01:15:36 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
I suspect Neanderthals would likewise think species-centrically. |
Well, sure. But we're species centric, and yet we're here talking about hypothetically resurrecting Neanderthals. Any suffienciently intelligent creature capable of empathy would probably at least consider doing such a thing if it were within their power. I don't see why Neanderthals would be different in that respect.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 11/26/2008 : 01:34:18 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by H. Humbert
Originally posted by HalfMooner
I suspect Neanderthals would likewise think species-centrically. |
Well, sure. But we're species centric, and yet we're here talking about hypothetically resurrecting Neanderthals. Any suffienciently intelligent creature capable of empathy would probably at least consider doing such a thing if it were within their power. I don't see why Neanderthals would be different in that respect.
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Then there's the difference between saving an endangered species, and resurrecting on that has gone extinct. I think there's stronger arguments for the former than for the latter. On the other hand, there's the dodos. Since we humans wiped them out (and arguably killed off the Neanderthals), it could be argued that we have a duty to bring them back, if we can.
Basically, I don't have strong knowledge or opinion on the subject of Neanderthal "restinction," so I'm just recording an off-the-cuff opinion. Except for the coolness of mammoths thing, which, though about which I am equally ignorant, I have strong opinion.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 11/26/2008 01:35:28 |
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Hawks
SFN Regular
Canada
1383 Posts |
Posted - 11/26/2008 : 08:35:02 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Chippewa
We could teach them to ride the dinosaurs we will create by combining ostrich DNA with reptilian DNA. It'll make a swell show at Madison Square Garden. We'll clean up!
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That'd be pretty cool. After all, no one has seen that for the last 4,000 years. |
METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL
It's a small, off-duty czechoslovakian traffic warden! |
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 11/26/2008 : 10:03:57 [Permalink]
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They are conflicting hypothesis as to whereas Neanderthals and Sapiens could cross-breed.
I, personally, suspect they could. In which case, any Neanderthalis population we create would quickly be assimilated into the much more common Sapiens.
Unless we start putting restrictions on inter-specific marriage but I don't think it would fly. |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 11/26/2008 : 10:34:36 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Simon
They are conflicting hypothesis as to whereas Neanderthals and Sapiens could cross-breed. |
That Wikipedia article I linked too sited specific scant evidence found in a few places that indicates Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon might have interbred and there were likely pockets of Neanderthal lingering into the Cro-Magnon era. It isn't a simple case of "they lost - we won". We all "loose" (i.e. go extinct) eventually.
Long term species survival depends on our evolved descendants who better fit the environmental niches and changes, sudden or gradual. The idea that remnants of Neanderthal may be in us today has not been completely dropped. I'm guessing here but if that's true, I wonder if present humans have subtly detectable Neanderthal characteristics. In other words, would a better genetic understanding of Neanderthal enable us to spot commonalities?
A 1983 discovery of a Neanderthal hyoid bone indicated that they likely had the physical ability to speak. The bone is virtually identical to the modern human bone. |
Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.
"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.) |
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Philosophical question (of sort)
