Neanderthals on trained mammoths vs. dynamite flinging, undead industrialists!
We need to pitch that idea to The Asylum. That's just about their level of sophistication.
Unsurprising. Cohen has a song for about everything. The greatest bard of our time.
But for whatever reason his arrangements are grating and I prefer well done reinterpretations. But that's only me.
What a guy!
Yep. By bringing one(or a couple) back we wouldn't bring their culture back.
I have a hunch that by studying their behaviour we would find out that they like fast food, action flicks and beer.
You too:)
It's yet another example of some looser attempting to inflate their ego by attempting to correct somebody else's English and getting it wrong themselves.
Fixed that for you.
Tongue in sheep. And foot in mouth.
Oh wow, that even looks aweful when I KNOW I'm trolling.
I'm a horrible person.
You are quite spot on. Here's my take.
I've been preaching time and again that cooperation is our biggest competitive advantage.
Intelligence and opposable thumbs and the ability to sweat and so on only amplify what we can achieve by cooperation.
That being said we are very vicious when it comes to things other than us. Us does not even encompass the whole human race.
What I have to say may come over as a bit left leaning eco-nutter drivel. But I can't offer any easy solutions because I see very little alternatives.
We happily go at war with each other and will a hundred years later not even know why or if it was worth it.
We will happily participate in genocide.
We keep animals in nasty conditions so we can have cheap food.
We happily leave our fellow humans to rot as long as we are fine.
We are unable to cooperate on a global level and barely functional on a national level.
I could bore you to tears with the complete list but I lost interest myself.
the gist is, we still are so primitive we can't deal with each other beyond our immediate circle of about 100 persons. It's been a while since I read it but there was a report that our empathy level goes severely down the less well we know a person. And obviously we can't know too many people well enough. Which means that we are somewhat stuck with brains that don't properly function beyond the scale of a tribal level.
Thankfully we recognized that in the 18th century and came up with the concept of Human Rights as a crutch to lean on when our empathy doesn't work. We suspected something like this for a lot longer, but the concept was only finalized 200-300 years ago. Quite recently actually.
So there still is hope for us. But only if we do not give in to our gut feeling. Which propably ironically kept us alive up until now.
Yup. Neandertals typically had faces pretty similar to h. sapiens sapiens. They were on average a bit shorter and stockier than anatomically modern humans, but with America's obesity epidemic, they probably wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb.
They had fairly heavy browridges, but the neanderthal average wasn't outside the limits of what you see with some AMHs even today.
I dunno what an AMH is.
Considering the neanderthals and us are pretty much contemporary and very closely related this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.
Even we as homo sapiens sapiens are a very diverse lot. We have so many phenotypes among ourselves that we regularly get confused about it(the pitchfork and torches kind of confusion).
If a neanderthal on Times Square would tell everybody he were from Mongolia and if a Neanderthal in Mongolia told them he were from New York, no eyebrows would be raised ever.
Especially New York seems to be a valid explanation for anything out of the ordinary. Closely followed by Berlin, London and Paris. The more, the weirder. That's us. Homo sapiens sapiens and proud of it!
Perhaps we actually should clone neanderthals. Then we could stop loking for intelligent life in space since we finally found some on Earth.
Germany is one of the countries that is most radically opposed to human cloning. Usually, the aversion is justified with "Germany's Nazi past", but it's really just the Catholic church and its hangups about reproduction. So: wrong country to be discussing this.
The 1950ies called. They want their memes back.
He is not proposing to do this in Germany. He is talking to a German magazine.
Germany has very strong laws concerning genetic engineering due to conservative majorities AND very strong green antipathy. This has been going on since the 1980ies. For somebody who has lived under a rock you are strangely convinced of the correctness of your opinion.
Apart from that this is not only a question of political bias against anything. The ethical questions need to be asked and answered first. Good luck getting this greenlighted in any part of the western world. The list of countries that want to have anything to do with stem cell research and treatment might be a good indicator where to set up shop for Neanderthal cloning. And even those might want to kick you out for it.
Mr Dunning, meet Mr Kruger. But Praise The Lord, you had an opinion and voiced it. Even if it was a little bit rubbish.
As soon as somebody has the POTENTIAL to look you in the eye and say "whoah! dude! not cool!" I'd be cool to call him a person.
Of course my definition of personhood(as indeed any definition of personhood) leaves gaps wide enough to drive a truck through. So we might have to go by our gut feeling.
Which of course totally resolves the pro-life/pro-choice argument...
It's already been done yonks ago.
Turns out there actually is a market for hairy breasts.
I hear Japanese scientists are working on self-fellating feline hybrids.
We are making splendid progress in genetic engineering. It's not for potatoes anymore!
Yes, dark hair and brown eyes are the plesiomorphic traits. However, their breasts probably are way too large to be primitive and their noses are too narrow too to be it too. Still, I found those breasts really interesting and to be sure about their authenticity it would be nice to examine them more in detail. If they turn out to be of the primitive type I can go primitive too; maybe I have more of those plesiomorphic traits than I ever knew.
Oh, we came up with the concept of ethics.
But we did a piss-poor job of thinking it through or even taking them seriously.
But they get paraded up and down everytime on faction wants to prove it's right. So whatever they are, I hope they have a dress uniform. Otherwise they would be pointless.
Sarcasm. The last refuge of the eternally confused.
Actually, Wikipedia says that they survived until somewhere around 2000-2500 BCE, about 4000-4500 years ago. Still, cloning a mammoth does sound interesting. What could possibly go wrong?
For one we might have to deal with a mammoth infestation obscuring the view to the screen.
But then we could always clone sabre-tooth cats to deal with the mammoths. Problem solved.
What with all the parallel universes, temporal anomalies and other quirks going on I need to both agree and disagree with you.
Being a nerd requires a stupefying level of double-think these days. And people wonder why I sometimes wear my pants on my head, shove pencils up my nose and go "whibble".
Funny how we call them homo sapiens neanderthalensis while we call ourselves homo sapiens sapiens.
Rather unimaginative, don't you think? And either sapiens is open to debate.
They were probably neither super-smart nor super-strong, just super-horny. They screwed their way into oblivion...or was it immortality?
Ummm, no. That would be us.
We are still around while they vacated the premises in an orderly fashion.
But they left a right old mess of bones, cult items, action movies and the ancient art of mooning behind.
Actually Neanderthals are not our ancestors. Well, not of our species anyways.
It's the same thing as with tigers and lions. Common ancestor. Interbreeding possible. To some degree.
And since we as a species like getting laid by anything that will have us there was bound to be some bonking with Neanderthals, bits of wood that didn't float away fast enough and of course our first attempts at angling.
So we might have some genetic disposition towards a little bit more fur than we were originally entitled to. The current debate goes that we share a lot of genetic material with Neanderthals. Which might point towards interbreeding. But we also share a lot of genetic material with wheat. No scientist has yet managed to pollinate wheat although I'm quite sure a couple of them tried.
So there.
Wouldn't it be great if taxonomy lead to an actual tree? With all this undiscerning bonking going on it leads to one massive circle jerk.
Slashdot Mirror
Quick! Run a simulation!
Neanderthals on trained mammoths vs. dynamite flinging, undead industrialists!
We need to pitch that idea to The Asylum. That's just about their level of sophistication.
Unsurprising. Cohen has a song for about everything. The greatest bard of our time.
But for whatever reason his arrangements are grating and I prefer well done reinterpretations. But that's only me.
What a guy!
Yep. By bringing one(or a couple) back we wouldn't bring their culture back.
I have a hunch that by studying their behaviour we would find out that they like fast food, action flicks and beer.
Yay us! We're so smart!
Labrador retrievers?
You too :)
It's yet another example of some looser attempting to inflate their ego by attempting to correct somebody else's English and getting it wrong themselves.
Fixed that for you.
Tongue in sheep. And foot in mouth.
Oh wow, that even looks aweful when I KNOW I'm trolling.
I'm a horrible person.
You are quite spot on. Here's my take.
I've been preaching time and again that cooperation is our biggest competitive advantage.
Intelligence and opposable thumbs and the ability to sweat and so on only amplify what we can achieve by cooperation.
That being said we are very vicious when it comes to things other than us. Us does not even encompass the whole human race.
What I have to say may come over as a bit left leaning eco-nutter drivel. But I can't offer any easy solutions because I see very little alternatives.
We happily go at war with each other and will a hundred years later not even know why or if it was worth it.
We will happily participate in genocide.
We keep animals in nasty conditions so we can have cheap food.
We happily leave our fellow humans to rot as long as we are fine.
We are unable to cooperate on a global level and barely functional on a national level.
I could bore you to tears with the complete list but I lost interest myself.
the gist is, we still are so primitive we can't deal with each other beyond our immediate circle of about 100 persons. It's been a while since I read it but there was a report that our empathy level goes severely down the less well we know a person. And obviously we can't know too many people well enough. Which means that we are somewhat stuck with brains that don't properly function beyond the scale of a tribal level.
Thankfully we recognized that in the 18th century and came up with the concept of Human Rights as a crutch to lean on when our empathy doesn't work. We suspected something like this for a lot longer, but the concept was only finalized 200-300 years ago. Quite recently actually.
So there still is hope for us. But only if we do not give in to our gut feeling. Which propably ironically kept us alive up until now.
Homo sapiens sapiens and confused about it.
Yup. Neandertals typically had faces pretty similar to h. sapiens sapiens. They were on average a bit shorter and stockier than anatomically modern humans, but with America's obesity epidemic, they probably wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb.
They had fairly heavy browridges, but the neanderthal average wasn't outside the limits of what you see with some AMHs even today.
I dunno what an AMH is.
Considering the neanderthals and us are pretty much contemporary and very closely related this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.
Even we as homo sapiens sapiens are a very diverse lot. We have so many phenotypes among ourselves that we regularly get confused about it(the pitchfork and torches kind of confusion).
If a neanderthal on Times Square would tell everybody he were from Mongolia and if a Neanderthal in Mongolia told them he were from New York, no eyebrows would be raised ever.
Especially New York seems to be a valid explanation for anything out of the ordinary. Closely followed by Berlin, London and Paris. The more, the weirder. That's us. Homo sapiens sapiens and proud of it!
Perhaps we actually should clone neanderthals. Then we could stop loking for intelligent life in space since we finally found some on Earth.
Germany is one of the countries that is most radically opposed to human cloning. Usually, the aversion is justified with "Germany's Nazi past", but it's really just the Catholic church and its hangups about reproduction. So: wrong country to be discussing this.
The 1950ies called. They want their memes back.
He is not proposing to do this in Germany. He is talking to a German magazine.
Germany has very strong laws concerning genetic engineering due to conservative majorities AND very strong green antipathy. This has been going on since the 1980ies. For somebody who has lived under a rock you are strangely convinced of the correctness of your opinion.
Apart from that this is not only a question of political bias against anything. The ethical questions need to be asked and answered first. Good luck getting this greenlighted in any part of the western world. The list of countries that want to have anything to do with stem cell research and treatment might be a good indicator where to set up shop for Neanderthal cloning. And even those might want to kick you out for it.
Mr Dunning, meet Mr Kruger. But Praise The Lord, you had an opinion and voiced it. Even if it was a little bit rubbish.
What's with the Geico jokes? That's the insurance company that uses a gecko as its mascot, right? ...
Hm. Can't decide if that means I've been away from the States for too long--or not long enough. ;)
Comin' up next on The Violence Channel: An all-new "Ow, My Balls!"
This post was brought to you by Carl's Jr.
...or we disappeared into their gene pool? Think about it...
BOGGLE!
Yup. Ethics are a bitch and then we all die.
As soon as somebody has the POTENTIAL to look you in the eye and say "whoah! dude! not cool!" I'd be cool to call him a person.
Of course my definition of personhood(as indeed any definition of personhood) leaves gaps wide enough to drive a truck through. So we might have to go by our gut feeling.
Which of course totally resolves the pro-life/pro-choice argument...
I think I need to lie down.
The idea has a strange appeal.
But surely, we can do this with a 3D printer at home? Let's fill up the test tubes by other means.
It's already been done yonks ago.
Turns out there actually is a market for hairy breasts.
I hear Japanese scientists are working on self-fellating feline hybrids.
We are making splendid progress in genetic engineering. It's not for potatoes anymore!
That reminds me of the guy who wanted 1 MEEELION Facebook likes to get laid.
Yes, dark hair and brown eyes are the plesiomorphic traits. However, their breasts probably are way too large to be primitive and their noses are too narrow too to be it too. Still, I found those breasts really interesting and to be sure about their authenticity it would be nice to examine them more in detail. If they turn out to be of the primitive type I can go primitive too; maybe I have more of those plesiomorphic traits than I ever knew.
Given the prmitive depictions of women you might want to reconsider.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ankara_Muzeum_B19-36.jpg
Ummm. Iä! Magna mater?
Depends.
The porn industry might provide funding and whatever else is needed for this little project.
In fact, it already happened and it spilled all over the internets.
Quick! Mop it up!
Oh, we came up with the concept of ethics.
But we did a piss-poor job of thinking it through or even taking them seriously.
But they get paraded up and down everytime on faction wants to prove it's right. So whatever they are, I hope they have a dress uniform.
Otherwise they would be pointless.
Sarcasm. The last refuge of the eternally confused.
If you have one bucket that contains 2 gallons and another bucket that contains 7 gallons, how many buckets do you have?
Having spent some time in rural Northern Germany, I believe Neanderthals are still alive.
Germany, hell. Try spending a weekend in Cleveland.
Don't be flippant.
Besides, we were discussing neanderthals. Not cro-magnon. Those are a completely different kettle of Kutteln.
Actually, Wikipedia says that they survived until somewhere around 2000-2500 BCE, about 4000-4500 years ago. Still, cloning a mammoth does sound interesting. What could possibly go wrong?
For one we might have to deal with a mammoth infestation obscuring the view to the screen.
But then we could always clone sabre-tooth cats to deal with the mammoths. Problem solved.
How would this 'adventurous human woman' collect from the dead(beat) dad?
Easily.
Child Services are quite accustomed to dealing with Neanderthals. Leave it to the professionals.
What with all the parallel universes, temporal anomalies and other quirks going on I need to both agree and disagree with you.
Being a nerd requires a stupefying level of double-think these days. And people wonder why I sometimes wear my pants on my head, shove pencils up my nose and go "whibble".
It would make a great movie if we could stop remaking Superman movies for a while.
...or Spiderman.
Those two are whimps who get smacked around by Batman any day. Therefore we need more Batman.
Because Batman!
Funny how we call them homo sapiens neanderthalensis while we call ourselves homo sapiens sapiens.
Rather unimaginative, don't you think? And either sapiens is open to debate.
They were probably neither super-smart nor super-strong, just super-horny. They screwed their way into oblivion...or was it immortality?
Ummm, no. That would be us.
We are still around while they vacated the premises in an orderly fashion.
But they left a right old mess of bones, cult items, action movies and the ancient art of mooning behind.
Actually Neanderthals are not our ancestors. Well, not of our species anyways.
It's the same thing as with tigers and lions. Common ancestor. Interbreeding possible. To some degree.
And since we as a species like getting laid by anything that will have us there was bound to be some bonking with Neanderthals, bits of wood that didn't float away fast enough and of course our first attempts at angling.
So we might have some genetic disposition towards a little bit more fur than we were originally entitled to. The current debate goes that we share a lot of genetic material with Neanderthals. Which might point towards interbreeding. But we also share a lot of genetic material with wheat. No scientist has yet managed to pollinate wheat although I'm quite sure a couple of them tried.
So there.
Wouldn't it be great if taxonomy lead to an actual tree? With all this undiscerning bonking going on it leads to one massive circle jerk.