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From: mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Human/Chimp Hybrids?
Message-ID: <34196@cup.portal.com>
Date: 23 Sep 90 01:29:39 GMT
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Ah!  One of my favorite subjects!

I remember hearing about 10 years ago that an orangutang (or some other
large primate cloesly related to humans) had been found with 46 chromosomes,
and that a a group in Japan was planning to attempt a cross with a
female volunteer.  Anybody got any followup on that?

My $0.02 says it wouldn't work, because the it isn't just the chromosome
count--the type of chromosomes themselves have to be similar.

As I posted many months ago, there is a little discussion of the difference
between chimps and Man at the back of Stephen Jay Gould's THE MISMEASURE
OF MAN.  He thinks that the essential difference is neoteny, i.e. that
humans are a neotenized version of an ancient ape.  Neoteny is the
preservation of juvenile characteristics in the adult--a sort of arrested
development.  This is possible explanation for things like the large head
size relative to body size in humans.

If the Human Genome Project is pushed to completion, it has the potential
to discover such "clocks" in the genetic programming of growth.  This would
potentially make possible the development of super-humans, with exagerrated
neoteny, and proto-humans, with retarded neoteny.  It might also lead the way
toward the neotenization of inferior species, such as chimps, to increase
their intellectual capacity.

This is indeed the most important scientific endevour ever conceived.  It has
the potential to improve not merely Man's knowledge, but Man himself.
An increase in Man's mental abilities is like a multiplier which could be applied
to all future achievements of Man.  No other breakthrough could provide
benefits of such enormous and lasting value.

To shrink from this experiment is the greatest disservice we can provide
to future generations.  Destiny demands it!  The future heroes of science
will be those brave men and women (and perhaps a few smart chimps) who can
see past the "morality" composed by the clique of small-brained bureaucrats
who make the guidelines required to receive government funding.