On 23-7-2009 1:11, Darren New wrote:
> andrel wrote:
>> On 22-7-2009 23:43, Darren New wrote:
>>> andrel wrote:
>>>> Reality check: would my ethics change if there was an intermediate 
>>>> (sub)species between humans an chimps? 
>>>
>>> You mean like Neanderthal? Otherwise, you're going to have to define 
>>> "subspecies". :-)
>>>
>> That was meant in the context of reversing some of the mutations that 
>> separate us from the chimps (or retrofitting our mutations in them*).
> 
> I understand that. Aren't neanderthals between us and the common 
> ancestor of us and chimps?  I.e., didn't cro magnon descend from 
> neanderthal?  I guess I should look that up myself, but...
> 
There is no easy way to know which mutations occured later, so a 
complete rollback is impossible. Besides I suggested to start with the 
biggest changes (some of them presumably among the oldest) first, so 
that the result of that operation would not result in a species that had 
ever existed. If cro magnon  or neaderthal were a dead end, you can not 
reach them even if you knew exactly in what order the mutations arose 
starting from our common ancestor until modern humans.
But you knew that.

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