From: Vanessa Novaeris (novaeris@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Jul 15 2002 - 09:14:18 MDT
spike wrote:
<<It would not be *necessary* to bootstrap, but I would predict that it
would occur anyway because of differential mate selection. The
DNA would remember, in a sense, that men were once large and
manly. Instinct would guide the women to differentially mate with
those who resembled modern humans more than those big headed
guys you saw in the pilot for Star Trek.>>
I'm sick of this whole business of mate selection. I don't think I was willing
to accept that such behavior was actually programmed into the core of my being
- what a bummer! I think gonads are dumb & I want new DNA. (oops! I missed the
more sex less brains thread)
spike wrote:
<<In fact, I am not surprised that humans are currently getting larger. We
have figured out how to produce arbitrarily many calories, so we are in the
process of bootstrapping ourselves to a larger size. Is evidence necessary to
support this claim? ...Humans are getting bigger fast.>>
You seem to be right & evidence is indeed everywhere. I don't have to look
any further than my own siblings who each just celebrated birthdays- my 7
year old sister is already about 4'4" (134 cm) & perhaps even more surprising
is my 5 year old brother, not far behind at about 4 feet tall (126 cm). These
kids are monsters! I worry a lot about what kinds of dreadful hormones may be
in their milk but thats another topic.
So you do appear to be right but I don't understand why - it doesn't seem to
make sense. I mean, for what purpose do we need these big bodies? I don't
have to go out & hunt wildebeest with a big stick or survive unaided on the
polar icecap. Shouldn't we need less body-mass as we acquire & integrate more
technology? Again, I'm probably being obtuse & missing something simple. But
I just think its kind of creepy actually. It doesn't *seem* like it should be
the next natural step.
Is my new DNA ready yet?
novaeris
---- This message was posted by Vanessa Novaeris to the Extropians 2002 board on ExI BBS. <http://www.extropy.org/bbs/index.php?board=61;action=display;threadid=52453>
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