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Should We Clone Neanderthals?
- fjarlq 17y agoYes.
- stretchwithme 17y agoI predict they would die quickly. Viruses and bacteria attacks have evolved and neanderthal defenses haven't.
- pavs 17y agoIf we can clone them surely we can keep them alive?
- mahmud 17y agoThey were a warrior race that fed on beasts the likes of which we have never seen. Too noble to be kept in glass boxes and fed through IVs. We won the race, now let's not desecrate their remains.
- pavs 17y agoThats a philosophical question and I agree with you on that, but I was referring to stretchwithme point that they would die quickly. I am not too interested in bringing them back either, but dinosaurs on the other hand...
- jjs 17y agoThey were a warrior race that fed on beasts the likes of which we have never seen. That makes for good movie trailer voiceover, but Neanderthals were "our" contemporaries.
- endtime 17y agoWhat exactly is noble about them? They were probably savage and barbaric; the complete opposite of noble.
- chbarts 17y agoThe 'Noble Savage' myth is the last vestige of racism still taken seriously by educated Westerners. It seems harmless enough, because the stereotype is positive, but it's still an assumption about moral character based on race.
- benpbenp 17y agoThe problem with the Noble Savage myth is that it is a ridiculous romanticization, much akin to the myth of the "simple, merry country folk." The idea in itself doesn't have anything to do with the race of the savages in question.
- bd 17y agoIf we got extinct, I'm pretty sure we would like to get cloned.
- mahmud 17y agoShould we get extinct, I don't want to be the first or the millionth to be cloned to life. I want to come to this world 200k years after the experiment, born naturally into a world where my specie is not the lab-rat of another more intelligent. In a world full of our own inventions, cultures, and languages. I also want a family tree with people whose life stories fill my youthful evenings with pride and curiosity. After that, I wouldn't mind if there was a pony, and/or an Atari 2600.
- nazgulnarsil 17y agoI just want a holodeck. I don't particularly care if I am put in an alien zoo.
- swombat 17y agoI want to come to this world 200k years after the experiment, born naturally into a world where my specie is not the lab-rat of another more intelligent. In a world full of our own inventions, cultures, and languages. I also want a family tree with people whose life stories fill my youthful evenings with pride and curiosity. Sometimes you have to make personal sacrifices (like being the first to be brought back to life) so that millions or billions after you get a chance.
- bradfordw 17y agoNo. I can only tolerate so many Geico commercials...
- mahmud 17y agoNo. Without their culture, community, and absolute freedom to roam the planet and carve a corner for themselves, they would be another zoo/museum curiosity, a biological anomaly paraded before us for pennies. Even if a sizable population of them were granted full human rights and a habitat, they would forever owe us their existence, and their debt to humans would hang over anything they achieve for themselves in terms of growth and survival. Our future generations will also treat them as an experiment gone awry, should they ever threaten the slightest human interest. It's hard enough watching dying racial and linguistic minority groups; their last remaining few members made into coursework for "our" undergraduates. Bringing back a Neanderthal is to kill him twice, after granting him a brief purposeless life for our own edutainment. Let them rest in peace.
- robryan 17y agoI think there is a big difference between trying to restart their civilisation and cloning one. Sure morally it would probably be the wrong thing to do, but there would be a lot to learn from doing it. I guess it's a fine moral line, if they're considered humans then people probably be against it but the past has shown animals are another class altogether with cloning research.
- extension 17y agoIf you cloned a Neanderthal, you would get a relatively normal looking person with average human intelligence who would adopt whatever language and culture they grew up in. Their differences due to being a Neanderthal would be more subtle than the variation among individual human beings. They would likely lead a normal life, provided they could escape the inevitable media frenzy and racism. The question "should we clone a Neanderthal?" is the same as the question "should we use unreliable technology to radically alter the development of a human being just for research purposes?" in which case the answer is undeniably "No".
- arethuza 17y agoIn his BBC series "British Isles: A Natural History" Alan Titchmarsh was made up to look like a Neanderthal, put on normal clothes and then went for a walk down a busy street - hardly anyone noticed. You can see a picture of him on this page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A21606040 http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A21606040 An excellent series: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/britishisles/prog_summary.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/britishisles/prog...
- jarin 17y agoSure, although first we have to decide who will be the Eloi and who will be the Morlocks.
- baguasquirrel 17y agoWasn't there an article here recently that suggested that Neanderthals weren't the cute cuddly people we'd thought them to be? http://www.themandus.org/ http://www.themandus.org/
- steve19 17y agoI hope it will not ever be done. If we ever get to the point where it can be done it probably will. On the other hand I am all for resurrecting woolly mammoths and other extinct animals. They would not be aware that they are giant and unintelligent historical relics at the mercy of their superior human masters.
- aaronblohowiak 17y agoand they may be delicious
- jarin 17y agoI would eat a wooly mammoth steak, or liver cake, well maybe I should take another peek...
- bhousel 17y agoWe probably shouldn't, but we probably will..