In the future...

[fat bear]

In the future, far distant future, will we all have the same skin, hair, eyes, and all other physical features due to genetic blending or will we still look different from each other? I hope this does not happen but I fear it will. I don't want us to all look like Michael Jackson.

[squealpiggy]

Originally posted by fat bear
In the future, far distant future, will we all have the same skin, hair, eyes, and all other physical features due to genetic blending or will we still look different from each other? I hope this does not happen but I fear it will. I don't want us to all look like Michael Jackson.

Genetic blending is less likely not more likely. Now we have more ethnic mixing than ever before and with the advent of popuar travel we are more likey than ever in history to reproduce with someone that is from outside our own gene pool. If you ever go to one of those weird villages where people hardly ever leave you see people share many kinds of similar characteristics due to inbreeding. A good example is the Batista village where all the boys are born as girls because of an odd genetic trait. This would disappear if the gene pool of the area was thinned out.

The only time there would be an exception to this is if genetic engineering would become commonplace, for example like in A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I don't think that this is terribly likely due to increased diversity.

Noone will ever look like Michael Jackson though. Not without trying anyway.

[Panto]

I think Squealpiggy covered everything... Everybody looking like each other (let alone Michael Jackson) just wont happen.

[Rogue]

I think there will always be races.

because lets face it: somtimes asians really do prefer other asians, blacks prefer other blacks and whites prefer other whites etc.

There is nothing wrong with this. Nor is there anything wrong with the mixing of the races. But i think mixing is the exception rather than the rule even today.

besides there are too many races/cultures out there to blend them all evenly. more races/cultures would spring up eventually.

EDIT: even if all the races did mix together the product would not be as horrible as michael jackson. good lord.

[Dom]

you need as little as about 200 people to start a new population though breeding if it was required.

genetic blending is not going to happen without some sort of huge ecological/human disaster that lowers the population to mere hundreds (hey, but if anyone can fuck the human race up it'll be those damn right wingers)

[pipedreams]

I think you might have different races evolving differently as climates and habits change. But probably only slightly compared to what some theorists think.

Climates might make us adapt in different ways, whether this being natural evolution or not.

Also habits, e.g., intelligence against labour? What we do also, you see Americans are getting larger and less active, no offence. But Chinese are smaller and more active, no offence.

Only time will tell…;)

[squealpiggy]

What you now find is that the rich are getting thinner and more healthy whereas the poor are getting fatter and less active. This is partly because it is more expensive to easily eat healthily than it is to easily eat unhealthily. Of course you can eat reasonably well on a low budget but this takes effort and people nowadays prefer convenience. But I think that this is more to do with diet than with genetics.

[Mexican Pie]

Hmm, genetic modification reminds me of Nazi Germany- Blonde hair, Blue eyes, good build... to bad if you aren't any of these.

Perfect Society? Yes, that does sound like Hitlers plans.

In short? We are achieving one of Hitlers goals- perfect society. But is we were perfect, it would suck. We would be God- we don't even scale to God at any level.

Why bother with genetic modification? We'd be sooo boring if we were perfect...

[squealpiggy]

Hitler's plan was utterly flawed. With inbreedin genetic defects become more apparent. That's why purebred pedigree dogs may well look superb but as they age they start to show defects, like alsations lose control of their back legs, bulldogs have breathing difficulties, labradors get fat and spaniels grow cysts and tumors.

So you can get people looking the way you want them too but after a couple of generations of limiting the gene pool the people are fucked!

[Huh?]

Apparently - scientifically proven - in the very far future, men will dissapear, due to women being able to breed without them. Don't ask me how.

If you want an example of how bad inbredding can get, take the Royal family and their long history of madness. :)

[squealpiggy]

Announcement: SCIENCE CANNOT ACTUALLY "PROVE" ANYTHING!

Irrefutable proof falls outside the boundaries of science. Science can only hypothesise from observed phenomena.

And yes some scientists have speculated that with the advancement of genetics and cloning it may come to pass that males are no longer necessary to the species however this is not inevitably going to be the case.

[Panto]

Originally posted by Huh?
Apparently - scientifically proven - in the very far future, men will dissapear, due to women being able to breed without them. Don't ask me how.

If you want an example of how bad inbredding can get, take the Royal family and their long history of madness. :)

Actually with the technology for cloning women don't need us already.

[pipedreams]

Wouldnt it be as easy to say men dont need women due to cloning technology.

But then no man would truly argue this - lol.

I think the future will hold more in the change of electornics being added to people, sort of star wars style.

Its happening already with mobile phones and computers.

People already are walking around with head sets and devices to plug into other devices.

[Panto]

Men need women because they produce the egg. The egg will always be needed, but with cloning there is no need for sperm

[pipedreams]

Cant you just clone one egg and be done with them? There must be a way to get rid of them?

[squealpiggy]

Originally posted by Panto
Men need women because they produce the egg. The egg will always be needed, but with cloning there is no need for sperm

This is an Egg:

http://www.newcornish.com/images/egg.jpg

This is the human ovum:

http://www.tamu-commerce.edu/coas/dean/ovum.jpg

I hate it when people call the ovum "Eggs". It puts me right off my breakfast.

</pedantic>

[Panto]

clone an egg??? Just to refresh your memory I said cloning not replicating (this isn't star trek!)

[Panto]

Originally posted by squealpiggy
This is an Egg:

http://www.newcornish.com/images/egg.jpg

This is the human ovum:

http://www.tamu-commerce.edu/coas/dean/ovum.jpg

I hate it when people call the ovum "Eggs". It puts me right off my breakfast.

</pedantic>


what the hell do you think ovum means!!!! EGG!!!

Anyway why would me saying egg put you off your breakfast? Surely the fact that you're eating what, for lack of a better phrase, is a chicken period

[squealpiggy]

An egg is not an ovum, an egg is an external gestation "organ". And I am eating human Ova for breakfast, I don't want to think about chicken periods while I do.

[pipedreams]

Im more concerned on how runny it is than where it came from.

[Rogue]

it creeps me out to know i have hundreds of eggs inside me.

*Shudder*

eggs

[Panto]

Just noticed that this has gone an ikkle bit off topic (oops!)


btw, sorry for the double posting before...I didn't notice

[Dr-Electro]

Some people can take a perfectly plausible idea as presented by a scholarly individual and with a single post turn it into cow manure.

Please think before you post. If you don't, you sould like an ass-clown. Really.

This is a fascinating issue for anyone who has ever been exposed to genetics and/or sociology. I don't believe that racial mixing will result in a homogenous species. Individual tastes will still bring about heterogeny.

[sack the chimp]

Originally posted by pipedreams
Wouldnt it be as easy to say men dont need women due to cloning technology.


Erm, no one seems to have mentioned, there might be ways to get round the egg (sorry, ovum), but women have wombs.

Cloning is very, very far from growing a baby outside the human body.

[KnucklzPlugDog]

Originally posted by squealpiggy
A good example is the Batista village where all the boys are born as girls because of an odd genetic trait.
Oi squealpiggy, you got any cites or links for this? My curiosity is piqued.