captaincranky
Posts: 19,689 +8,831
I'm not attempting to exclude any "race" from their status as "people" with equal abilities, and certainly not in any way concerning their intellectual capacity. So, I tried to make a simple point that we classify people based on politically motivated terminology, and not by scientific fact.
There nine (9) subspecies of the tiger, three (3) of which are extinct. None of them are "superior" or "inferior" to the others. they simply differ in size, color, and range of habitat. Have a look:
Iconic Cats: All 9 Subspecies of Tigers
The six surviving and three extinct subspecies of tiger.
"Trinomial taxonomy", gives three (3) names to every group, clade, clan, race, or subspecies of a particular animal. The "nominate" species, always has the species and subspecies names the same. Thus, Panthera tigris tigris, or Bengal tiger, is the "nominate species". So it is with the Eurasian or "common" wolf, Canis lupus lupus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_wolf.
What I'm going to call the "house wolf", Canis lupus familiaris, is what we call a "dog". (or other expletives deleted when it craps on the rug). We have tampered with Canis lupus genetics more than any other animal on the planet.
This is the extent of our tampering, worldwide:
"In the United States alone, the AKC's dog breed list currently includes 190 dog breeds. Worldwide, the FCI lists 360 officially recognized breeds. These don't include experimental breeds that have yet to achieve official status. Official lists also don't include mixed-breed dogs, not even "designer" crossbreeds like the goldendoodle (a cross between a golden retriever and a poodle) or the puggle (a mix of beagle and pug)."
So now, let's look at, "selective breeding in humans", which is something we've been doing for millennia, for any number of sociological reasons. (religion, social status, along racial lines, and what have you).
The members of these space crews are likely to have mated with one another, (or individuals of similar backgrounds), based on the criteria I've mentioned already.
The classic example of genetic defects in humans brought on by "selective breeding", is tay sachs disease, which occurs primarily in Ashkenazi Jews.
"Tay-Sachs disease is a rare inherited condition that mainly affects babies and young children. It stops the nerves working properly and is usually fatal. It used to be most common in people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent (most Jewish people in the UK), but many cases now occur in people from other ethnic backgrounds".
Jewish people, particularly Orthodox Jews, are notoriously a closed community, and hence they are dealing with a somewhat limited gene pool.
There are fears the similar genetic diseases are starting to occur in the "Quakers", which are likewise a very religious and closed community, averse to technology. (You can still see them driving horse and buggies, in the Lancaster area of Pennsylvania).
So, this all was triggered by a "joke", I tried to tell earlier about the space crews creating a new subspecies of humans, "Homo sapiens repugnus". or in English, "repugnant human beings" ("repugnant" comes directly from Latin). In hindsight, I probably should have gone with, "repugnans"
Apparently, nobody got the joke, just as you misunderstood the meaning of my earlier rant.
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