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My bet is that, if we did disappear and another species "caught up" so to speak, the descendants of modern chimps would take the crown, with the right evolution

My bet is that, if we did disappear and another species "caught up" so to speak, the descendants of modern chimps would take the crown, with the right evolutionary pressures, in 5 million years at the earliest. That's about how long ago we forked: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimpanzee%E2%80%93human_last_common_ancestor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimpanzee%E2%80%93human_last_... Of course I wouldn't bet too much, because it's really a bet on many, many events occurring together, and we're all familiar with the product law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution If we started a human-directed breeding program to develop chimps capable of language (arbitrarily chosen marker of intelligence) right now, I would guess we might be able to cut that time down to merely hundreds of thousands of years.

kanzure 12y ago
> If we started a human-directed breeding program to develop chimps capable of language (arbitrarily chosen marker of intelligence) right now, I would guess we might be able to cut that time down to merely hundreds of thousands of years. Another option is to pick a collection of human genes that seem like they may be relevant, and just insert them into chimp genomes. Followed by something like your selective breeding program. I would be fairly surprised if it still takes 100k years.
- dbbolton 12y ago
  >Another option is to pick a collection of human genes that seem like they may be relevant, Hey, that would be cheating!
IndianAstronaut 12y ago
In addition to breeding for bigger brains, we should also introduce the concept of cooking. Cooking may have led to our bigger brains. http://news.sciencemag.org/evolution/2012/10/raw-food-not-enough-feed-big-brains http://news.sciencemag.org/evolution/2012/10/raw-food-not-en... Also, a bonobo has been trained in the use of fire. http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5186701 http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5186701
- dbbolton 12y ago
  And agriculture was a huge boon to our cooking!

kanzure 12y ago

> If we started a human-directed breeding program to develop chimps capable of language (arbitrarily chosen marker of intelligence) right now, I would guess we might be able to cut that time down to merely hundreds of thousands of years. Another option is to pick a collection of human genes that seem like they may be relevant, and just insert them into chimp genomes. Followed by something like your selective breeding program. I would be fairly surprised if it still takes 100k years.

dbbolton 12y ago
>Another option is to pick a collection of human genes that seem like they may be relevant, Hey, that would be cheating!

IndianAstronaut 12y ago

In addition to breeding for bigger brains, we should also introduce the concept of cooking. Cooking may have led to our bigger brains. http://news.sciencemag.org/evolution/2012/10/raw-food-not-enough-feed-big-brains http://news.sciencemag.org/evolution/2012/10/raw-food-not-en... Also, a bonobo has been trained in the use of fire. http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5186701 http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5186701

dbbolton 12y ago
And agriculture was a huge boon to our cooking!