MESSAGE
| DATE | 2005-02-16 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir Secretary NYLXS
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [hangout] wblogs are BS
|
On Wed, Feb 16, 2005 at 04:10:14PM -0500, Billy wrote:
> Ruben Safir Secretary NYLXS wrote:
>
>> I just finished a great far-future SF (God
Emperor of Dune)
>
>> about human evolution in which the hero/villain
concludes
>
>> that humans are soft and need to be preyed upon again.
>
>
>I think as a fact, we are de-evolving because of modern medicine.
Our
>
>overall
>
>gene pool is being weakened as diabetics, asthmatics,
emotionally
>
>disturbed, etc
>
>patients are surviving conditions which
would have killed them in previous
>
>generations.
>
>
>
>Note: This is not a moral statement, just an observation.
>
> If that's not a moral
statement, I don't know what is.
> It's a formula for a cost/benefit guide to evaluate
> human activities, which is what morality is all
> about, isn't it?
This is not a basis for morality and I'm confused as to why you would
think it is. A moral question is not a cost benifits analysis.
>
> The concepts of "weakness" and "strength" are elusive with
> regard to gene pools.
No, there is an objective means of evaluating the stength of the human
gene pool. There are qualitative numbers showing a rise in diabetes,
arthrisis, organic mental disorders, birth defects, in the West, which
is a direct result of the intervention of modern medicine.
For example, after the Black Plague in the 14th century, it left Europe
with a hardier population, and Yessiria, the organism which is the
causitive agent for the Black Plague, is less virulent in European
population pools today than it was at that time. Furthermore, its
been discovered that there are many people resistant to the HIV virus.
And those individuals carry the generitic markers which saved those
selected populations from the plague.
The mark of evolutionary forces on species, despite the crying of
the creationists, is a measurable, and powerful, biological force
which affects all species, including and especially the Human species.
The evolutionary changes on humans over the last 20,000 years have been
at an unprecidented breath taking pace, which is one of the reasons for
the unusally broad phenotypes of humans. There is a lot more variation
between to humans of different races, say Mongol and African, than there
is between individual lions, the Judean lion and the African lion.
The only species which rival the diversification and evolutionary
changes of humans are the other animals which are also shaped by the
same evolutionary force as humans: ie - The Human Intellect. So dogs,
horses, cattle, and parakettes are also under similar changes.
In considering this, think of the evolutionary history of Cows, Horses and
probibly dogs. The ancestoral species of the cows and horses are EXTINT.
Its also likely true of dogs, of will be in the near future.
These domesticated animals have no wild ancetors. The feral domestic
horses and cows are a new species, which have semi-adapted back to a
wild existence.
Well, the ancestoral human species to modern humans is ALSO extinct.
We are every bit as domesticated as the common mutt.
And again, this is not a moral observation. If based on this someone would
propose lining up all the victems of downs syndrum, or to refuse treatment for
AIDS patients in order to fix the gene pool, that would be IMMORAL.
The analysis of morality has nothing to do with cost/benifits.
Ruben
> Genes are complicated enough that > you can't apply a fixed set of
metrics and come up with > a "strength" of a population. The sickle
cell looks > like a weakness until malaria makes it a strength. > >
There are individuals of incredible mental power (Newton > and other
'Rain Men') who wouldn't likely have lasted > long in the savannah (the
celibacy didn't help, in his case), > and yet neture itself is shaped
by their achievements. > The very 'weakness' of our gene pool may
enable their > creation. This only works to a certain shallow limit, >
but I think it serves to show that applying a value > metric to 1TB of
GATTACA is a temptation best avoided. > > The Neanderthal Newton would
have been beaten to death > with a stick for being an asshole.
--
__________________________
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