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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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