[OT] Short sci-fi story: The Lifeboat

[Intimidator]

DS: No I didn't forget the other group, but didn't include them, because of lack of info on that group.

- Size of the 3th group
- Location of the group (2000 miles on the other side of the continent, is an very large searching sector)
- What did they bring from Earth (are they able to survive and thus is it worth the search)

So I think that the 2 Groups aren't going to search the 3th group at all, at least not in a few hundred years (probably more)

Inti,

[TerranC]

Here's an article which everybody reading this story might find interesting: BBC News - When Humans Faced Extinction (Link)

[dogscoff]

Very interesting link TC. Kind of makes you wonder, what did all that genetic diversty look like before the near-extinction. Or to put it differently, what would humans look like now if all those lost genes had survived into the present? Would there be whole new ethnic Groups? Blue skin and purple hair? Cow-print colouring with elephant ears? Who can say for sure?

I rememebr a while back they found some 5-thousand year old preserved corpse in a glacier of a peat-bog or something and found that (somehow) it had viable sperm. Maybe this is all urban myth but apparently hundreds of womed were queueing up to get impregnated by this fossil, and the scientists refused them all on ethical grounds. Quite rightly so, I might add- imagine going through school with that stigma hanging over your head "Hey Cave-boy, where's your Daddy?" Not to mention the Scott Evil complex- "I wish I'd never been artificially created in a lab."
However it would be incredibly interesting to see the results. The temptation on those scientists- the curiosity must have been quite something to resist.

[ June 17, 2004, 23:06: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

[dogscoff]

oops, double post

[ June 17, 2004, 23:00: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

[Taz-in-Space]

Ther next question is, is 60-70 ppl too large a group for such a primitive, hand-to-mouth economy?

As a single constantly-together group?
Probably, however not all primative societys were grouped that way.
I remember reading about a nomadic society that had small 'tribes' that met other tribes once a year. At this mass meeting, the leaders of the tribes would collectively decide issues between the tribes.
With this system several hundred people could theorically be supported.

[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by dogscoff:
Very interesting link TC. Kind of makes you wonder, what did all that genetic diversty look like before the near-extinction. Or to put it differently, what would humans look like now if all those lost genes had survived into the present? Would there be whole new ethnic Groups? Blue skin and purple hair? Cow-print colouring with elephant ears? Who can say for sure?

I rememebr a while back they found some 5-thousand year old preserved corpse in a glacier of a peat-bog or something and found that (somehow) it had viable sperm. Maybe this is all urban myth but apparently hundreds of womed were queueing up to get impregnated by this fossil, and the scientists refused them all on ethical grounds. Quite rightly so, I might add- imagine going through school with that stigma hanging over your head "Hey Cave-boy, where's your Daddy?" Not to mention the Scott Evil complex- "I wish I'd never been artificially created in a lab."
However it would be incredibly interesting to see the results. The temptation on those scientists- the curiosity must have been quite something to resist.

Gack! You are actually reading those tabloid magazines in the supermarket or something? There are all sorts of crazy 'urban legends' about Oetzi the iceman, found in the Alps between Austria and Italy. You can easily find out the truth by Googling on 'Oetzi':

http://www.crystalinks.com/oetzi.html

BTW, genetic testing shows that Oetzi is in fact related to the current inhabitants of the area.

[dogscoff]

Yeah OK, I guess that was kind of far-fetched. Not as crazy as you might think though, considering some of the stuff scientists get up to. I remember seeing a documentary about a crazy japanese guy who launched all these expiditions because he was determined to find a glacierized mammoth and jurassic-park the species right back into existence by breeding mammophants of increasingly pure mammoth extraction. Nutter... although seeing a real live mammoth would be cool. (Unfortunately, I woulnd't get to, because with elephant/ mammoth gestation times he was looking at almost a hundred years to get a pure mammoth.)

[ June 18, 2004, 09:26: Message edited by: dogscoff ]