Nature Article 9/1/05 Chimp v Human DNA

[johnkwhite]

The September 1, 2005 article in Nature at

 

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v437/n7055/pdf/nature04072.pdf

 

comparing chimpanzee and human DNA is most interesting in its possible application to human populations. In the Discussion section at page 82, NATURE[Vol.437]1 September, 2005, the authors write: "Although decreased purifying selection may tend to erode overall fitness, it may allow hominids to 'explore' larger regions of the fitness landscape and thereby achieve evolutionary adaptations that can only be reached by passing through intermediate states of inferior fitness."

 

What an intriguing thought that the tiny difference in DNA between humans and chimpanzees forms an essential part of the moral basis of some of our species intervening in the actions of others of our species who engage in population purification and or control by segregating and/or differentiating their populations on the basis of gender, race, intelligence, mental health, socioeconomics and relgious belief.

 

jkw

[Tormod]

We covered this story here:

http://hypography.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3812

[HydrogenBond]

I think the DNA reaches it limit when one deals consciousness, unless it is conscious evoluton that is now manipulating the DNA. This may not be too far fetched since human conscious evolution has evolved much faster than physical evolution. It took millions of years to go from chimp to humans, but only ten thousand years to go from building fire to building supercomputers.

[Tormod]

I think the DNA reaches it limit when one deals consciousness, unless it is conscious evoluton that is now manipulating the DNA. This may not be too far fetched since human conscious evolution has evolved much faster than physical evolution. It took millions of years to go from chimp to humans, but only ten thousand years to go from building fire to building supercomputers.

 

The point being?

 

By the way, fire has been used for almost a million years.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3670017.stm

[johnkwhite]

I think the DNA reaches it limit when one deals consciousness, unless it is conscious evoluton that is now manipulating the DNA. This may not be too far fetched since human conscious evolution has evolved much faster than physical evolution. It took millions of years to go from chimp to humans, but only ten thousand years to go from building fire to building supercomputers.

 

Cool. And when you put that thought together with the work of Syke, et. al., on founder populations and research on genetic variants controlling the size of brains, up pops genetic variants which control physical size of the brain, but which are not particularly helpful to survival, e.g., the genetic differnces which slect out for big brains in us versus chimps result in the use a lot of energy and make childbirth harder for us than for chimps, but are more than enough to make us a whole lot different than chimps--they are going extinct and we are going to the moon---fire to supercomputers I think is just the start. It is a little scary to think about what that means for any similar changes in those genetic differences which we find cropping up today among the various founder populations. We left chimps behind because of those deltas, and if there are deltas today among human groups, does that mean we are differentiating and leaving some humans behind? And following your thought: "but only xxx years to go from supercomputers to superhumans???? Fuel on an already smoldering fire? Probably. Remember an old scifi story, Flowers for Algernon?

 

jkw

[HydrogenBond]

In another forum topic I gave an example of consciousness manipulating DNA. Here is the gist; if one thinks about food one can often make themselves hungry. What this implies is that the imaginary thought process will unpack DNA, transcribe RNA, translate proteins for increased enzyme activity leading to the cacade of biochemical and DNA inductions events that define the hunger impulse. This is especially true if one thinks about hunger for a prolonger time and uses up all the chemical stored in the cells. To me it seems reasonable that the whole brain can manipulate gamete cells and thereby induce DNA pertubations connected to consciousness.

[johnkwhite]

In another forum topic I gave an example of consciousness manipulating DNA.....

 

I understand the idea. Would the same thing hold for someone not having a well developed conscious understanding, do you think? E.g., a baby, a mentally disordered person, etc.? Or, and this is stretching the article's thinking, what about folks who have gene variations which select for some type of measurable physical function of the brain, e.g., size, chemical releases such as you describe, etc. As a young man, I personally observed lightly dressed eastern ascetic monks sit for hours in below freezing temperatures (8-10 degrees F) while meditating..It was pretty clear to me that they were controlling their body temperature with their minds. I was too young and stupid to appreciate what I was seeing, but my boss was totally freaked.

 

jkw