Radically speed up evolution

Originally posted by Shadow88
Purely for scientific curiousity, what is the plausibility of speeding up evolution so to speak, to see what certain animals wuld become in this experiment.

perhaps by choosing one randomly selected sperm and another egg from a mouse, and the moment you are able to extract another sperm and egg do the same, and again and again, for perhaps 4000 - 10000 times, accounting for a substantial amount of time, and see what happens?

is there a quicker way than waiting until one can extract the sex cells?

what wrong with what we have now
there are lots of cool critters out there;
www.pbs.org...

nothin wrong with em but breedin cool things we havent got yet would be cool.

Originally posted by Shadow88
nothin wrong with em but breedin cool things we havent got yet would be cool.

hmmm....I feel a jurassic park quote coming on

Dr. Ian Malcolm: What is so great about discovery? It is a violent, penetrative act that scars what it explores. What you call discovery, I call the rape of the natural world.

Ah yes some more Chriton-esqe fear-mongering So what should we do just stick out heads in the sand and stop asking questions? Denying Human Nature is what that is... It always gets me when people take Fiction serously, Chriton is cooking up another anti-intellectual movie this time targetting Nanotechnology in his book and upcoming movie "Prey". I had a debate on wether or not we should clone a Dinosaur if we ever get to that point in genetics with a friends of mine, it was a very short lived debate as his opener was Look at Jurassic Park, as if that was a probable scenario which it isn't...

What you call Rape, I call climbing the ladder of knowledge and defferientiating ourselves from our superstitious fanatical ancestors.

Originally posted by sardion2000
Ah yes some more Chriton-esqe fear-mongering

So what should we do just stick out heads in the sand and stop asking questions? Denying Human Nature is what that is... It always gets me when people take Fiction serously, Chriton is cooking up another anti-intellectual movie this time targetting Nanotechnology in his book and upcoming movie "Prey". I had a debate on wether or not we should clone a Dinosaur if we ever get to that point in genetics with a friends of mine, it was a very short lived debate as his opener was Look at Jurassic Park, as if that was a probable scenario which it isn't...

What you call Rape, I call climbing the ladder of knowledge and defferientiating ourselves from our superstitious fanatical ancestors.

so you're all for a radical sped up evolution of a species, just because it would be "cool"

what about the ecosystem ? what gives us the right to do this ?
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.

First off, radically speeding evolution up is very dangerous, and nobody would consider it without the possible negative consequences, of which I'm sure there would be many. But, to do research on what would happen would be infintely helpful in tons of areas of research.

If you did, however, manage to radically speed up the process, we'd create an ecosystem for them. Just like a little boy does when he caputres bugs and gives em a leaf in the cage, we'd do the same for anything we'd created. We don't want them or the outside world dealing with each other until we're absolutely ready for it.

"But, to do research on what would happen would be infintely helpful in tons of areas of research. "

oh really ? taken out of context with no relative ecosystem, how would mankind benefit ? I'm talking specific, "actionable intelligence", not a chapter in a book with pictures. big whoop-dee-doo when your talking playing god....

and ethically, what gives us the right ? we're not talking about research to see if a shellfish creates a substance that might be beneficial in medicine, we're talking about manipulating evolution...playing god....

What happens when an activist group releases the poor critters (in a jar with a leaf on the bottom, oh boy) and they wipes out an ecosystem (see australian dingoes, or cane toads as examples) ???

...pandora's box, and just another example of how mankind uses technology in a irresponsible way, consequences be damned, we've got grants to win, papers to publish, and questions to answer......my 2 cents....

its not dangerous, or irresponsible, it would be a controlled, sterile experiment for curiosity.

Sometimes I contemplate what instinct truly is if not the "cliff notes" of the accumilated experiences and knowledge gained thereof of the conscioussnesses that have preceded us. Perhaps the imbedded knowledge that lies within us does originate from the singularity, the first source. I wonder how much of that lies dormant, untapped, un-nurtured, un-used. Perhaps we could "evolve" instantainiously if we dissregarded our objections, our judgements, our neuro-hardwiring may need to be re-wired before we are permitted by ourselves to raise our own conscioussness to the potential possibilities. At any rate, good luck on your quest.

"What we are looking for is what is looking."
--St Frances of Assisi--

Originally posted by Shadow88
its not dangerous, or irresponsible, it would be a controlled, sterile experiment for curiosity.

Hey 88, its a cool idea, I don't mean to get all worked up over a hypothetical situation or question.

Just don't try it on a shark or crocodile, you'll be working lots of overtime !

Originally posted by syrinx high priest
oh really ? taken out of context with no relative ecosystem, how would mankind benefit ?

You could see how one thign affects another. "What would happen if we lowered these emissions standards? Oh, we'd kill all the wangdoodles? No, that's bad" "What would happen if we stopped letting people kill wolves? Oh, I see, there'd be more deer than humans, hell no." Stuff like that.

we're talking about manipulating evolution...playing god....

I wonder on this one. How is this 'playing god' and what's so wrong about playing god anyway? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

What happens when an activist group releases the poor critters (in a jar with a leaf on the bottom, oh boy) and they wipes out an ecosystem (see australian dingoes, or cane toads as examples) ???

Same reason you don't give any idiot a nuke.

pandora's box, and just another example of how mankind uses technology in a irresponsible way, consequences be damned, we've got grants to win, papers to publish, and questions to answer......my 2 cents....

Not at all. This is purely scientific right here, I doubt much money could be made off simulating ecosystems, designing animals, or speeding up evolution. And, don't forget, pandora's box gave us the best thing ever: Hope.

lol i like that comment about the nuke lol

anyway lets just bring life to mars or some planet near by oviosly it would be a lot more complex than that but what would we have to lose then?