Jurassic Park, here we come

Zoombie · Aug 2, 2010

http://singularityhub.com/2010/08/02/cloning-extinct-species-how-close-are-we/

For as long as life has been a feature of this planet, natural selection has been wiping out species with subpar adaptive strategies. Among the casualties: dinosaurs, mammoths, Neanderthals, and all manner of megafauna that we’d all love to see first-hand. Alas, mother nature hasn’t been particularly forgiving of species selected against: for four billion years, extinction meant extinction. That is, until last year.

Ace.

This makes me think that all endangered species should have their genomes sequenced, as a final insurance.

Better safe than sorry, you know?

thewakingself · Aug 2, 2010

Thank God I just learned in another thread T. rex was likely a scavenger. Else I'd be really worried.

Seriously, though, this is very cool. But it makes me kinda sad we'd have to resort to a "frozen zoo" considering that some of the animals on the endangered list are there because we put them there. But like you said, better safe than sorry.

Zoombie · Aug 2, 2010

Oh yeah, I'm not saying we should do that and just go, "Durrr lets go on killing them, afterall, they're backed up."

Its something to do while we ALSO work on not killing them off.

thewakingself · Aug 2, 2010

Nah, I didn't think you implied that at all. I truly hope nobody thinks that.

For what it's worth, I'm all for backing up genomes while trying to save endangered species, too. And possibly cloning them, though I admit I'm a little weirded out by scientists trying to clone long-extinct species. But maybe that's just because Jurassic Park gave me nightmares.

Zoombie · Aug 2, 2010

I'd love to see a Neanderthal and talk to one, just to see how their brains function and if they're as sentient - or more sentient - than we. If that makes any goddamn sense.

regdog · Aug 2, 2010

Ohh, is there where I order a triceratops

thewakingself · Aug 2, 2010

Hey, I'd love to see some dodo birds myself.

Anthropologists would have a total field day, and I think there's potentially a ton of super cool learning to be had. Just so long as the Neanderthals don't get stuck in some zoo or laboratory. That's the thing that niggles at me most, I guess.

And now I can't stop thinking about those GEICO commercials.

Don · Aug 2, 2010

I don't see a zoo or laboratory as the natural habitat of the Neanderthal.

I suspect they would prove much more popular on the farm or the factory floor.

How would the courts treat their humanness? Would they be chattel or men? This could open a whole big can of worms.

Not to be Debbie Downer or anything.

thewakingself · Aug 2, 2010

Co-signed on the Debbie Downerness. Those are all legitimate concerns, I think, and you nailed what bothers me. We often don't treat our own species well, so I'd hate to see what would happen to them. (Ethics notwithstanding, I still kinda want to see a dodo.

)

Zoombie · Aug 2, 2010

I think we should, right now, extend all rights American citizens get to American citizens that are sentient and not human. If they are created - I.E, birthed - by American citizens, they're protected by the Constitution.

That would include AGIs, uplifts, transgenic clones, whatever.

Shadow_Ferret · Aug 2, 2010

Zoombie said:
I'd love to see a Neanderthal and talk to one, just to see how their brains function and if they're as sentient - or more sentient - than we. If that makes any goddamn sense.

I run into those all the time.

Maxinquaye · Aug 2, 2010

Zoombie said:
I'd love to see a Neanderthal and talk to one, just to see how their brains function and if they're as sentient - or more sentient - than we. If that makes any goddamn sense.

They wouldn't be so different from you and me. You'd have a hard time distinguishing them from some members of our own kind.

I always liked this picture.

and this

Neanderthals were human beings, just like us. They had art and music, buried their dead, and created technology. Their "flaw" was that they were specialized. Sort of like the human version of the polar bear. Once the ice age went, they went too, and it didn't help that the generalists of our own kind made an appearance at the same time.

Zoombie · Aug 2, 2010

Max, everyone is different from me!

Maxinquaye · Aug 2, 2010

I'll take your word for it.

But then again, Don is right too. It only took a different skin colour for "the land of the free" to deem a whole category of human beings as property.

Michael J. Hoag · Aug 2, 2010

Zoombie said:
I'd love to see a Neanderthal and talk to one, just to see how their brains function and if they're as sentient - or more sentient - than we. If that makes any goddamn sense.

I'd like to meet Mitochondrial Eve. The Adams too. There lots of cool historical figures we could put in museums. Or as Don said, factory floors.

Of course, that's monstrous, but yeah, I was kind of serious. So I guess I'd like to meet her in the process of breaking her out...

... we'll fall in love, which will be weird and we'll live a life on the run. Of course, the authorities (Ray Kurzweil's severed floating head) will probably sick GMO T-rexs on us (these will most definitely be predators.)

Zoombie · Aug 2, 2010

Ya know, if America stuck to the constitution as it was written, we could have avoided two hundred years of struggle and just gotten straight to the goddamn point.

I can't believe how hard it is to hammer into people's heads that this Constitution thing is really...REALLY CLEAR.

Zoombie · Aug 2, 2010

Michael J. Hoag said:
I'd like to meet Mitochondrial Eve. The Adams too. There lots of cool historical figures we could put in museums. Or as Don said, factory floors.

Of course, that's monstrous, but yeah, I was kind of serious. So I guess I'd like to meet her in the process of breaking her out, we'll fall in love, which will be weird and we'll live a life on the run. Of course, the authorities (Ray Kurzweil's severed floating head) will probably sick GMO T-rexs on us (these will most definitely be predators.)

Um...

I think we should, right now, extend all rights American citizens get to American citizens that are sentient and not human. If they are created - I.E, birthed - by American citizens, they're protected by the Constitution.

That would include AGIs, uplifts, transgenic clones, whatever.

Michael J. Hoag · Aug 2, 2010

Zoombie said:
I think we should, right now, extend all rights American citizens get to American citizens that are sentient and not human. If they are created - I.E, birthed - by American citizens, they're protected by the Constitution.

That would include AGIs, uplifts, transgenic clones, whatever.

"Sentient." Hmmm...

Does that count pigs? Or the (some say) slightly less intelligent bonobos?

Michael J. Hoag · Aug 2, 2010

Perhaps corporations will isolate the gene responsible for "sentience." Then we can simply create museum and factory versions that seem human in all regards but lack this essential quality--but would otherwise seem entirely human. You'd never know the difference to talk to them.

Zoombie · Aug 2, 2010

Well, I'm a fan of growing meat without growing a nervous system attached to it, because that clears up the ethical waters somewhat.

Don · Aug 2, 2010

Michael J. Hoag said:
"Sentient." Hmmm...

Does that count pigs? Or the (some say) slightly less intelligent bonobos?

Anything that passes the Turing Test is OK in my book.

Michael J. Hoag · Aug 2, 2010

Don said:
Anything that passes the Turing Test is OK in my book.

Ah good. Not the disabled then. Clear. So a GMO workforce of humans with Broca's Area altered would work just fine for us.

And they wouldn't talk back!

(Or sophisticated AI beings so long as they lack speech recognition software.)

LOG · Aug 2, 2010

on January 6, 2000, the last surviving Pyrenean ibex (named Celia) was naturally selected against via a falling tree.

ROFL

Quick question: If a species is brought into this world via a constructed genome, have we revived, or created?

Michael J. Hoag · Aug 2, 2010

BREAKING NEWS!!!

Wow! BREAKING NEWS!!!

The Dolphin/whale alliance of the Mid-Atlantic ridge has just announced the results of their 2,000 year pilot study on human intelligence (claimed to be an oxymoron by some scientists of the SouthWest Indian intersection.)

In 2,000 years, according to ambassador Merlin, the humans have failed to pass the sneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiort chir chir test, which he explained was the Dolphin-Language equivalent of the 'Turing Test' often used with "primitive" ape languages.

This has answered the long-standing question of whether humans and other apes could be ranked along with rats and elephants as "sentient" beings of "near dolphin intelligence" in under-sea law.

To aid humans in passing the test, dolphin field-scientists have encouraged a policy of "immersion" by refusing to speak inferior ape languages in their interactions.

"In 3 chooiiiisr shhhhh of time," said Merlin, "they have yet to even learn one of our names, not to mention rudimentary deep-sea interdimensional rematerialization!"

But he did add that our revoked protection under the Dolphin Constitution has a tuna lining: "You will make a fine infantry in our land war against the Slistaka Pigs of the 43rd dimension."

Maxinquaye · Aug 2, 2010

So, we get it, you want to sing kumbaya around camp fires in the jungle, living as nature intended humanity to live - as the lower part of the food chain, with very short lives. It's cool. Each to his own. Mother Earth is happy about you. She called me on her iPhone to tell me. She'd be back online in a week. Some people had ploughed through a cable in Amish country.

Jurassic Park, here we come

Dragon of the Multiverse

Plays with fire.

Dragon of the Multiverse

Plays with fire.

Dragon of the Multiverse

The Scavengers

Plays with fire.

All Living is Local

Plays with fire.

Dragon of the Multiverse

Court Jester

That cheeky buggerer

Dragon of the Multiverse

That cheeky buggerer

"What's-it on the wall."

Dragon of the Multiverse

Dragon of the Multiverse

"What's-it on the wall."

"What's-it on the wall."

Dragon of the Multiverse

All Living is Local

"What's-it on the wall."

Lagrangian

"What's-it on the wall."

That cheeky buggerer