5 ms·

It'd be interesting if we could witness a new species of hominid evolving to a "human-like" level. Would probably create a lot of moral/legal issues. Hopefull

It'd be interesting if we could witness a new species of hominid evolving to a "human-like" level. Would probably create a lot of moral/legal issues. Hopefully it happens within my lifetime or we discover immortality first.

epicureanideal 2y ago
I really wish there were a ton of drug discovery startups paying software engineer salaries. It'd be exciting to see faster advancement.
- nradov 2y ago
  Every pharmaceutical company including the startups hires software engineers. But the hard parts aren't really a software problem.
- jjk166 2y ago
  I doubt that the discovery rate is a salary issue. Large numbers of extremely intelligent people are employed by the pharmaceutical industry, but due to the immense number of confounding factors and biological realities, it takes a long time to get reliable data from any test when compared to software.
  - epicureanideal 2y ago
    From what I have heard, inside pharma companies it's often extremely dysfunctional and inefficient though.
mmooss 2y ago
> It'd be interesting if we could witness a new species of hominid evolving to a "human-like" level. We might, but it takes millions of years so you wouldn't notice it in your lifetime. The evolutionary line that produced homo sapiens separated from the chimpanzee line ~7 million years ago. It took ~1 million years to begin to walk upright. It took another ~3 million years to learn to use tools, and another ~2.8 million years for homo sapiens to evolve. If you were around for 75 years during one of those intervals, you probably wouldn't notice any evolution happening - it would seem the same when you were born and when you died.
- lapcat 2y ago
  What's truly astounding is that almost everything that we consider to be "civilization" developed over the past 10,000 years or so. The historical turning point was the move from the wandering hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture and permanent human settlements. Before agriculture, the life of humans wasn't a lot different from any other animals, despite the tools.
  - mmooss 2y ago
    I agree that the last 10,000 years are astounding, though that came after 7 million years of evolution (or ~540 million years, or billions of years, depending on how you look at it). > Before agriculture, the life of humans wasn't a lot different from any other animals, despite the tools. Pace Silicon Valley; we are far more than our technology! If you took away my permanent structures, agricultural products, computer, writing, and other post-paleolithic technology, I still would be much more than an animal, thank you. And so would you.
    - lapcat 2y ago
      > If you took away my permanent structures, agricultural products, computer, writing, and other post-paleolithic technology, I still would be much more than an animal, thank you. And so would you. I disagree.
      - circlefavshape 2y ago
        I also disagree. I contend that the person who wrote "I still would be much more than an animal" knows very little about animals
      - mmooss 2y ago
        I post on Hacker News, therefore I am.
        BlueTemplar 2y ago
syspec 2y ago
I'd feel like current humans would kill them off
louthy 2y ago
> Would probably create a lot of moral/legal issues. Read 'Flowers for Algernon' first! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_for_Algernon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_for_Algernon

epicureanideal 2y ago

I really wish there were a ton of drug discovery startups paying software engineer salaries. It'd be exciting to see faster advancement.

nradov 2y ago
Every pharmaceutical company including the startups hires software engineers. But the hard parts aren't really a software problem.
jjk166 2y ago
I doubt that the discovery rate is a salary issue. Large numbers of extremely intelligent people are employed by the pharmaceutical industry, but due to the immense number of confounding factors and biological realities, it takes a long time to get reliable data from any test when compared to software.
- epicureanideal 2y ago
  From what I have heard, inside pharma companies it's often extremely dysfunctional and inefficient though.

mmooss 2y ago

> It'd be interesting if we could witness a new species of hominid evolving to a "human-like" level. We might, but it takes millions of years so you wouldn't notice it in your lifetime. The evolutionary line that produced homo sapiens separated from the chimpanzee line ~7 million years ago. It took ~1 million years to begin to walk upright. It took another ~3 million years to learn to use tools, and another ~2.8 million years for homo sapiens to evolve. If you were around for 75 years during one of those intervals, you probably wouldn't notice any evolution happening - it would seem the same when you were born and when you died.

lapcat 2y ago
What's truly astounding is that almost everything that we consider to be "civilization" developed over the past 10,000 years or so. The historical turning point was the move from the wandering hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture and permanent human settlements. Before agriculture, the life of humans wasn't a lot different from any other animals, despite the tools.
- mmooss 2y ago
  I agree that the last 10,000 years are astounding, though that came after 7 million years of evolution (or ~540 million years, or billions of years, depending on how you look at it). > Before agriculture, the life of humans wasn't a lot different from any other animals, despite the tools. Pace Silicon Valley; we are far more than our technology! If you took away my permanent structures, agricultural products, computer, writing, and other post-paleolithic technology, I still would be much more than an animal, thank you. And so would you.
  - lapcat 2y ago
    > If you took away my permanent structures, agricultural products, computer, writing, and other post-paleolithic technology, I still would be much more than an animal, thank you. And so would you. I disagree.
    - circlefavshape 2y ago
      I also disagree. I contend that the person who wrote "I still would be much more than an animal" knows very little about animals
    - mmooss 2y ago
      I post on Hacker News, therefore I am.
      - BlueTemplar 2y ago

syspec 2y ago

I'd feel like current humans would kill them off

louthy 2y ago

> Would probably create a lot of moral/legal issues. Read 'Flowers for Algernon' first! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_for_Algernon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_for_Algernon