Humans: Difference between revisions
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How long till races vanish? Someone alive in 300 yrs has more than 1,000 ancestors alive today (assuming a roughly equal length of generation). If people continue to move and mix even on a modest scale, it is highly unlikely to meet a purely caucasian, asian, african or other being after a few hundered years. | How long till races vanish? Someone alive in 300 yrs has more than 1,000 ancestors alive today (assuming a roughly equal length of generation). If people continue to move and mix even on a modest scale, it is highly unlikely to meet a purely caucasian, asian, african or other being after a few hundered years. | ||
There is one type of human on earth. All people living in the future, if any, will be common descendants. For conflicting parties, the thought might instill a desire to overcome their differences far enough to jointly secure the future. | |||
[[Talk:humans | See the discussion for efforts to communicate the subject.]] | |||
=== Some thoughts === | |||
What two individuals are identical? | |||
Don't believe all descendants will be common descendants? Think of rapid mixing of different groups e.g., the continuum of people of indigenous and African descent in Cuba. | |||
Everyone has a genetic father and mother. Proud to stem from an important person in the past? Take Charlemagne (approx. 747-814 AD), the famous ruler of Europe. In his generation everyone alive now has a theoretical 2 to the power of 50 ancestors, over a million times world population then. Everyone of European descent has a great many lines that make him/her descendant of Charlemagne. Older example makes the ancestorship even more likely. | |||
In our nature an easily self-reinforcing tendency to divide into groups seems "hardwired" and can dangerously be exploited. Such division into groups can be achieved on the basis of arbitrary and irrelevant "characteristics". We use the the same brain cells to think about us and members of our "group" and different brain cells for members of other groups. | |||
What would I have done had I had her genes and experiences? | |||
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Whether all intelligent beings that give rise to civilizations in the future are of human descent is a rather different question. Species evolve and | Whether all intelligent beings that give rise to civilizations in the future are of human descent is a rather different question. Species evolve and the cognitive power of machines is rising. | ||
Revision as of 00:09, 7 June 2010
There is only one type of human on earth!
How long till races vanish? Someone alive in 300 yrs has more than 1,000 ancestors alive today (assuming a roughly equal length of generation). If people continue to move and mix even on a modest scale, it is highly unlikely to meet a purely caucasian, asian, african or other being after a few hundered years.
There is one type of human on earth. All people living in the future, if any, will be common descendants. For conflicting parties, the thought might instill a desire to overcome their differences far enough to jointly secure the future.
See the discussion for efforts to communicate the subject.
Some thoughts
What two individuals are identical?
Don't believe all descendants will be common descendants? Think of rapid mixing of different groups e.g., the continuum of people of indigenous and African descent in Cuba.
Everyone has a genetic father and mother. Proud to stem from an important person in the past? Take Charlemagne (approx. 747-814 AD), the famous ruler of Europe. In his generation everyone alive now has a theoretical 2 to the power of 50 ancestors, over a million times world population then. Everyone of European descent has a great many lines that make him/her descendant of Charlemagne. Older example makes the ancestorship even more likely.
In our nature an easily self-reinforcing tendency to divide into groups seems "hardwired" and can dangerously be exploited. Such division into groups can be achieved on the basis of arbitrary and irrelevant "characteristics". We use the the same brain cells to think about us and members of our "group" and different brain cells for members of other groups.
What would I have done had I had her genes and experiences?
Whether all intelligent beings that give rise to civilizations in the future are of human descent is a rather different question. Species evolve and the cognitive power of machines is rising.