h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My family spent the day going through all our old home movies... Dad and I are planning to transfer them all to DVD shortly, and Mom got a bit nostalgic and decided we needed to watch them all...

Our favorite bit was from the tape of our road trip to Alaska in 1989. I was six years old and going through an I'm-going-to-dress-like-a-ballerina-and/or-a-princess phase... Then, when my father was taping, I said to him,

"Daddy, get a load of this!"

Then, when the camera was turned on me, I yanked open my jacket to show off my gorgeous princess costume.

(If you can't get an amusing mental picture of this, imagine one of those crazy men in trenchcoats that walk around and yank them open to flash people. )

We all started to laugh hysterically, and I choked on my dinner...

Proof I was just as crazy at six years old as I am at 18...

I dunno Sea, I never heard you say "Get a load of this" to anyone

On the evolution of our species; I fear that we are going to take the evolutioj of our species into our own hands even more so than we already do. I think that as soon as viable cloning is possible, that genetisists (sp?) are going to try to tinker witht eh human genome to our own detriment. I truly believe that teh movies that we see witht eh evil geneticly modified super warriors is not all that far fetched. All we need to do is unlock some of the secrets stashed away in our DNA and in teh human genome.

call me paraniod, but I think time will tell on this matter

[]

*finding genetical manipulations spooky*

Re supporting Israel: I can't understand how anyone can support a political system that is so clearly practicing apartheid, and I don't think "we were there in the beginning" is a good argument.
Feel free to ignore me if the topic is dead... Those of you that know me, knows where I stand in this issue.

Congrats England with the three-nill over Denmark, who, by the way had a terrible defence. As I type USA leads over Mexico by 1-0 at the 60th minute.

Five more days till holiday...

{[caer csd] wondering how to get out of doing stuff in order to sit out in the sunshine, a rare commodity at the moment}

[Munchkin, England won the football eh? It was odd wandering through town trying to avoid cheery revellers. One carload of them wanted me to sing along with their chants, and I didn't fancy trying to explain why chanting "England, England" is just not my thing Well done though, Brazil will flatten ye.]
Oh, and on Israel. Yes I can see why America would want to support a democracy over some of the Arabic dictatorships, but you can't use that as a reason to ignore other stuff. After all Germany did elect the Nazis. Please note, I am not making any comparisons here, just saying.

*runs up the stairs from the Crater Labs lobby, clutching the dragonFLYbot*

If the USA are playing Mexico it must still be Monday. So the orange button moves me in space but not time. Ah ha!

*sees on the coffee table and looks inside* looks at the ear* sniffs the ear* antennae twitch* picks up the note and reads it*

I wouldn't put it past The Celery to send the real thing next time. I had better get back to rescuing Lil. Before it's too late.

*mounts the DFB and presses an orange button*

Ahh the evolution of the species, one of my favorourite topics
I think we are still evolving - our little toes are disappearing, the appendix is on the way out (for those of you that don't know the appendix is a left over stomach apparently), our spines are getting longer, we are evolving socially, our eyes are getting weaker (a result of reading apparently).
We can't see it much in a few generations, but give it another 50 000 years and we'll be very different.

About genetic tampering - will genetic changes in a person be passed on to their offspring? If you loose a leg in a car crash your children are not born limbless, if you have your genes added to or taken out will they pass through to your offspring?

Also - genetic tampering - altering our selves to create some kind of Ideal Human has been going on for years and years and years Aristocracy interbred the same way you do with race horses to try and achieve perfection - isn't the whole darwinian notion of beauty and intelligence and strength tied up with this? (ie the beautiful and the strong get to reproduce and the ugly and weak don't) so whats all the fuss about that we can do it more so now? Is it so bad?
Things like amneotic (sp?) testing for Downs Syndrome haven't eliminated children being born with it despite a rise in abortions of children with it. And altering your childs genes will always be the preserve of the rich. And if it ever happens that everyone chooses their own child's genetic make up they'll be an enormous back lash of kids going "but I never wanted to do that! You have taken away my free will and choice!" Anyone seen Gattaca?

Gattaca is one of my favourite films of all time- Yay to Jersey Pictures (i.e. Danny Devito) for backing it.

i see that kind of unnatural selection happening not too far down the road, perhaps in the next ten years or so. Humans as a conscience, are afraid of their own deaths and are very watchful of their mortality. There are just too many people out there that would want their child to have the best chances going in life for people not to invest in that sort of technology, IMHO.


*does a happy dance for US' 2-0 victory*

Human evolution continues. We find certain things attractive often without knowing why, and one sometimes hears complaints that our culture defines what is beautiful sometimes against better judgement. I think that those cultural definitions are natural selection in progress.

Take for instance the obsession with thinness in many cultures. As food has become easier to obtain, the need for our bodies to store energy in fat molecules has become less necessary and sometimes leads to obesity and health problems. It makes some sense, based on the presumption of the ease of obtaining food continuing, that our bodies become less efficient at fattening up for the lean times. While we don't have doctors telling us that for the benefit of the species we should marry thin people, we do have this cultural preferrence for the Sara Michelle Gellers of the world over the Roseanne Barrs. Like it or not, Barbie™ may be leading us into the 28th century.

Who are those people? When I think of my beautiful, witty, intelligent, kind daughter, who did _not_ get on the running team, I wouldn't have had her any other way. She's perfect. Doesn't most people think their own kids are great?

Oh yes, I have seen Gattica

I forgot to mention that though I mention on every date that I genetically have no wisdom teeth, I have yet to impress anyone with that fact sufficiently enough to produce offspring.

And the thing that will stop genetic manipulation dead in its tracks is the first horrible failure. As much as Gattaca may hold some truth, so do those 1950's horror stories of children born with awful deformities (or the omnipotence to send someone "out into the corn field" for laughing at the wrong time).

d'E, I am impressed. Don't think that will help your keeping the gene pool stirring though.

{[caer csd] my mother didn't have wisdom teeth either, but we all do, Dad's genes must have been stronger. Must ask the son's if they've got any developing yet.

My argument earlier was not so much on physical evolution, rather intelligence, emotional and creative evolution. I wish I could remember the tv programme, it wasn't that long ago. Although we appear to be evolving, we are actually inventing the tools that allow us to appear more intelligent rather than becoming so. We are no more or less caring of our children either, compared to Stone Age people.

So we are just as likely to continue fighting and bickering over land, religion and politics in a few thousand years time as we are now, or a few thousand years ago.}

Ah but Sporky - people may well *want* the best for their child but may well not be able to provide it or will be offered cheap and detrimental alternatives. genetic tampering will not become as cheap as chips ever. It will always be, like any other cosmetic surgery, expensive, and ineffective (I think it will be ineffective anyway - IQ does not equal compassion or sense and physical fitness does not equal brains and you can never tell what kind of child will result). Cheap alternatives will result in a genetic version of silicon implants leaking and causing cancer I reckon.
And as Bumblebee pointed out - people are loved and most lovable when they are true to their own nature, whatever that may be. Certainly I know that my son is as mad as a barrel of monkeys with some kind of diluted autism but I reckon he's better off being that and having a stab at mad genius than being bland. And as the old adage has it variety is the spice of life. If we were able to control what our child would be... urgh..A horrid thought.. we'd all be the same and the human race would stagnate.

Interesting idea RE the thin thing - being overweight is the biggest killer in the Western world isn't it? Archeologists and pre history historians would have it that fat women were worshipped in days of old - probably cos they would survive the winter and you want a mother for your children who'll do that - and these days you need someone who won't die of a heart attack any moment. I think you have a very valid point there d'E.

Also d'E - Why don't you have any Wisdom teeth? Have they just not appeared? Or are you like 80 and they've never shown up for the party?

Hi all, still following discussion(s) with interest, especially the evolution one, and how it ties in with the war one..... one day I may shock you all and make a comment of my own

Sol - glad my rantings amused you....though I'm still ing slightly...

I'm very busy at the moment as I have a solo gig coming up on Friday;
I'm one of 3 support acts for a band called Alternative TV - I believe they're a punk/ post-punk band who are still going or re-formed......have any of you any memory/knowledge of them?

Also, if anyone wants to wish me luck, that would be very welcome

Hi all, still following discussion(s) with interest, especially the evolution one, and how it ties in with the war one..... one day I may shock you all and make a comment of my own

Sol - glad my rantings amused you....though I'm still ing slightly...

I'm very busy at the moment as I have a solo gig coming up on Friday;
I'm one of 3 support acts for a band called Alternative TV - I believe they're a punk/ post-punk band who are still going or re-formed......have any of you any memory/knowledge of them?

Also, if anyone wants to wish me luck, that would be very welcome

As regards emotional and social evolution - we are infinitly more complicated as a society now purely because there is more of us and consequently more ideas are floating around. As to whether we have evolved for the better... well... I refer you back to the whole it was a mistake to come down from the trees, no it was a mistake to come out of the ocean, and who's more intelligent us for creating war and Bakewell Tart or the Dolphins for larking aroung in the sea...
We cannot really judge if we are in a better place than our ancestors, if we are more caring and so on, because we just judge them on our terms. Whose to say that we care for our children in a manner that is good for them? Maybe throwing them out of the nest as young as possible and making them fend for themselves instead of protecting them is actually better for them.

I don't think the fat/thin thing is an evolutionary trend, since it isn't genetic. It's a choice to be fat and sometimes a choice to be thin (some people don't choose to be thin, they just can't afford enough to eat). And you can change it at will, if food is plentiful.

And as for the wisdom teeth thing, I don't see selection working there. For selection to work, and the species to evolve, the new characteristic (in this case, no wisdom teeth) must confer a biological advantage that is passed on to offspring. In other words, how does having no wisdom teeth help someone to have more offspring?

That's why I don't see the species evolving. Because no new characteristics cause people to have more offspring. The number of offspring we have is however many we choose to have, not however many we are capable of. So evolution has stopped because there is no mechanism for new characteristics to propagate widely.

The fat/thin thing. Its a fashion, just like tanning. In ye olden days, the average spod in the mire worked outside all day and didn't get a huge amount of food. As such they were thin and heavily tanned. Hence, to prove that you were a noble the simplest way was to get fat and stay indoors. Hence why all your medieval heroines (and pretty much right through to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution) all have milky white skin, and all evil Barons were fat. Nowadays food is plentiful (in the Western World) and most people work indoors all the time. Hence being thin and having a tan is the way of showing you are above all this work malarkey.
Oh, and evolution has not stopped, its just mankind is well suited to his current environment. Should things change, then only certain offspring will survive, and that is evolution, adapting to change.