Text 1261, 60 rader
Skriven 2004-12-31 10:55:00 av Tim Tyler (1:278/230)
Ärende: Re: A New Species of Man?
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Old Father Time <null@beyondman.com> wrote or quoted:

> Even so, why can this new group of humans not continue to interbreed
> with the old group, thus disproving that a new species has emerged?
> After all the two groups will inhabit the same Earth and will have many
> similar characteristics. Just as we have with chimpanzees.

A key question if our descendants are describes as not being of the
same species.

> Some established reasons why two populations with the same ancestry may
> not be able to interbreed are that they live in different habitats,
> their mating behaviour is different, their sex cells are incompatible,
> or their offspring do not survive. That the two groups live in
> different habitats is increasingly the case. Those most likely to
> develop into the new group inhabit the rich technological world or in
> small wealthy enclaves elsewhere, with diminishing regular contact with
> the rest.

On the other hand, the world has grown ever more knitted together
in recent times.  Old racial groups are under pressure by gene
stirring born of modern international travel.  I see no sign of
"diminishing regular contact".

> Mating behaviour is changing rapidly within the new group. The concept
> of a partner for life, or even a partner at all, is disappearing, as is
> the need for a known partner for the purposes of reproduction.
> Reproduction is a choice, not a necessity and decreasingly the result
> of an unwanted or chance encounter. Conventional fertility is
> decreasing in the new group, which together with a strong trend towards
> planned reproduction at a later-than-natural age further widens the
> division between the groups. Thus reproduction through chance mating
> between the groups will diminish. Indeed if the automation of the
> reproduction process within the new group leads to the production of
> sperm and eggs being possible only on request and under the control of
> third parties then the possibility of inter breeding disappears. This
> may appear to be the nightmare of eugenics over again, but it could
> arise not from some ideological madness but as a natural corollary of
> our technology-led evolution.

So, you see sympatric speciation for humans while on Earth?

It's /very/ hard to imagine such a thing.

I reckon practically the opposite will happen - genetic engineering will 
increase the number of organisms with which humans can exchange genes - 
and species boundaries will become blurred and in some cased dissolve -
rather than accumulate further.
-- 
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