Totally off-topic: Composit Humans

[Guest Konrad in Lincoln]

The following thoughts require some big assumptions, but what the heck.

Think about all the different genetic make-ups of all the different people of the world. European people look different than Asians, who look different than Hispanic, American Indian, etc. There's all these different genetic codes that are the result of thousands and thousands of years of cultures who were basically isolated all that time. They each evolved on their own, because they were all isolated.

Now consider that the world has "gotten smaller" as they like to say. It's not a problem to travel to another nation, it can (arguably) easily be done in a day. As the ages go by and transportation improves, we become more and more of a mixed, blended up species.

If technology continues to develop, and we are able to travel with even greater ease in the future, humans will eventually evolve into the "composite human". Which will probably be slightly brown complected, roughly 5'-9" tall (just guessing) and probably brown or darker hair.

I'm not talking about a few generations from now, I'm talking about thousands of years. And this isn't some sort of race thing. It's a simple mathematical fact. You factor all the genetic pools into a matrix and run it for hundreds and hundreds of generations, the composit human will eventually result.

Cool.

I'm gonna have another beer and think about this a bit futher.

[Guest Frank Hagan, Weekender, O]

Its the assumptions that kill you on this kind of thing. I forget who it was in the '60's that said the answer to world peace was "coffee colored people". He had a point in a country where skin color was a big deal, but peace isn't found among people who are similar ... not since Cain and Abel, anyway.

But on to morphological differences (I think I used that big word right). There's a lot of variety in the gene pool, enough that those that worry about "only stupid people breeding" have no worries. Seems there are a lot of kids smarter than their parents (for instance, you can ask my children about that.)

Seriously, those minor differences of skin color, eye shape, susceptibility to different diseases, etc. probably won't disappear. They used to say that a child could not have eye color darker than both parents (which embarrassed my parents because of my sister's brown eyes), but then they found out that brown eyes can be found in the legitimate offspring of lighter-eyed people (told you Mom didn't sleep around!)

My daughter, who studied this stuff in college, also told me an interesting fact. Most men's faces are somewhat symmetrical. Most women's are not. Seems most of the facial characteristics are carried on the "X" chromosome, and we get only one of those. For women, they get one from each parent, so they can often be an combination of features. Sometimes its striking ... such as that "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" lady, whose face is really unsymmetrical (but pleasant looking anyway). Take a close look at a woman's eye shape, eybrow location, cheekbones and other facial features and you'll see what I mean. Some women have really marked differences, including difference in eyebrow color, etc. You can see the difference in Dr. Quinn and her "half-breed Indian Stud Guy" in the photo below.

Fascinating, huh?

fshagan@ev1.net

[Guest Ray Frechette jr]

Frank wrote:

Its the assumptions that kill you on this kind of thing. I forget who it was in the '60's that said the answer to world peace was "coffee colored people". He had a point in a country where skin color was a big deal, but peace isn't found among people who are similar ... not since Cain and Abel, anyway.

Here here, i grew up in a largely franco american community. Plenty of disputes flew around.

The Native American tribes were not all living in Peace and Harmony with each other prior to the Evil White Europeans showed up on the scene, And those similar looking Europeans got their rep somewhere. Shoot they even in gross measures shared very similar religious beliefs.

As Pogo opined; " We have met the enemy and he is us"

I could wax eloquently on my perceived theological reasons for this, yea I fear I might offend some.

refent1@prodigy.net

[Guest Frank Hagan, Weekender, O]

: I could wax eloquently on my perceived

: theological reasons for this, yea I fear I

: might offend some.

Well, religion and politics are two of those subjects, you know, and this one touches on both! Which makes it all that much more fun to discuss (as long as everyone acts like an adult, that is).

fshagan@ev1.net

[Guest Ray Frechette jr]

: I could wax eloquently on my perceived

: theological reasons for this, yea I fear I

: might offend some.

Well, religion and politics are two of those subjects, you know, and this one touches on both! Which makes it all that much more fun to discuss (as long as everyone acts like an adult, that is).

Actually it was part of my point that it will take far more than a monochrome skin tone to eliminate conflict.

refent1@prodigy.net

[Guest Konrad in Lincoln]

The thing that I'm grasping at here, is that there has been a significant change in technology that allows us to have access to the whole planet (more or less), whereas up until 40 years ago, it wasn't very practical. It was just too hard to get around.

Let's use a wild example and let's say that someday humans develop a teleporting machine. (I hear a Stevenson's project is in the works on that) So humans could teleport from here to New Zealand just as easily as we could get to the grocery store 3 blocks away.

Eventually, wouldn't that facilitate a blending of the human race to the point where all humans would eventually evolve into a composite? Remember, I'm talking about thousands of years, not just a few generations. Surely this would happen, wouldn't it? It's just a math function, at least in my mind.

[Guest Ray Frechette jr]

But we can still visualize whirled peas.

refent1@prodigy.net

[Guest Bruce S Kershaw, SW Flori]

I don't even want to think about how close this is to me. (link)

...3, maybe 4 miles.

Then there's the mummified mother, son, and german shepherd. they just found in their home a few blocks away.

Seems they've been dead since 19-friggin'-99 ! (long story)

It's Thanksgiving. Be thankful that I don't have an "Optional Image URL:" to show you.

Body parts were hauled off with yard waste

karebru@worldnet.att.net