Carrnage
Human
- Location
- New Zealand
A lack of diversity, leading to issues like everyone having the same vulnerabilities to diseases.
Shepard Quest Mk V, Base of Operations (ME/MCU)
- Thread starter Esbilon
- Start date
Van Ropen
Angry, angry about elves.
Only in so much as all people already have the same vulnerabilities to diseases. Given a huge part of basic genemodding even in-game is identifying genetic predispositions towards certain illness and removing them...
Yeah, doubt it.
- Location
- Lake superior, Minoc
So how pissed off would the blue space elfs end up if Shep decided that gene pair that limited the number of times our cells can split isn't needed and turns it off.
Needed as a pred species on a single planet, but not in spaaaaace. Can just turn that little guy off.
Needed as a pred species on a single planet, but not in spaaaaace. Can just turn that little guy off.
Van Ropen
Angry, angry about elves.
They wouldn't be, because there is more to aging than telomeres.
Wouldn't be surprised if Peak Human extended the human lifespan though. It was already 150 in canon, should be at least 200 now.
The problem that Carrnage is referencing is that sometimes traits seen as a disadvantage are actually an advantage against specific diseases.
I'm recalling this off a conversation from several years, but I believe that sickle cell anemia is normally a problem that gene modding could get rid of, but people with sickle cell anemia are significantly less likely to die from malaria infections. Therefor, curing sickle cell anemia would make malaria more dangerous.
In general, genetic aberrations that are commonly seen as disorders can give increased resistance to random ass diseases, so it's usually better for a species to have some variety in case of an epic plague.
All that being said, by the time genetic diversity matters, a large portion of your population is already dying from a massive plague. Modern and future medicine should be capable of dealing with that sort of thing long in advance, and any well designed bio weapon wouldn't be hard countered by any widespread genetic aberrations.
We already have tons of examples of animals that straight up don't age. If we can manipulate our biology to give enhanced intelligence, strength, health, etc, mimicking that part of those animals should also be well within reach.
That doesn't solve everything, but it should put a lifespan of millennium in reasonable reach. Here is a rather long article about Ray Kurzweil's predictions on the matter. He might be overly optimistic, but there is definitely a reasonable chance that a large portion of the Baby Boomer generation will still be alive in the year 3000. Generation X has an even better chance. If a super genius living 200 years from now can't achieve that, then something truly strange is going on.
Obviously. I've mentioned several times that Revy has no intention of dying. Ever.
Let's say that not really aging is a 1600 point tech branching off Peak Human.
added to my tech spreadsheet as "Eternal Youth"
Are you maintaining a master list of all the techs anywhere? And have any others been added since the big Advanced Mass Effect Theory dump?
Not really, and no.added to my tech spreadsheet as "Eternal Youth"
Are you maintaining a master list of all the techs anywhere? And have any others been added since the big Advanced Mass Effect Theory dump?
Advanced Xenobiology is your friend.
Sort of right. Malaria is a known quantity that has effective treatment (although as always mounting resistances are a problem) and sickle cell anemia is a genetically recessive disease that actually increases the dangers of a malaria infection. Except when you are heterozygote for the sickle cell anemia trait, in which case it actually provides a degree of protection.
Van Ropen
Angry, angry about elves.
Yes, being heterozygous and carrying the allele for sickle-cell anemia in addition to a non-mutated copy of the gene means you don't actually have the illness, but have gained a resistance to malaria. That is why the trait never quite dies out. Don't think that really matters in our case, because...
Typed up a response, then realized you had done so in the next paragraph:
True, there are a few animals which display negligible senescence, and a regular conference held specifically to try tackling that issue in humans (even if it doesn't accomplish much) - I was just specifically saying that getting around the Hayflick limit isn't a magical solution. We'd probably all just die of cancer.
But you're right, if we can suspend disbelief and consider all the changes that Peak Human makes, and the complex manipulation required to achieve those results, then achieving biological immortality should be totally possible.
Chargone
Invisable operator
- Location
- New Zealand
On the subject of blonds...
there's actually ana Australian aboriginal tribe (or maybe more than one) who have blond hair. It's not due to interbreeding with Europeans. It's an entirely different set of genetic... whatever.
It's dominant over Every other hair colour.
So, unless they got wiped out, if diversity is decreasing due to people mixing around more... blond hair should probably become More common. Maybe.
(From memory, it's very thick hair too, rather than the finer hair found in most european blonds.)
there's actually ana Australian aboriginal tribe (or maybe more than one) who have blond hair. It's not due to interbreeding with Europeans. It's an entirely different set of genetic... whatever.
It's dominant over Every other hair colour.
So, unless they got wiped out, if diversity is decreasing due to people mixing around more... blond hair should probably become More common. Maybe.
(From memory, it's very thick hair too, rather than the finer hair found in most european blonds.)
Van Ropen
Angry, angry about elves.
I doubt the proliferation of their genes will be faster than the loss of blonde hair in Europe. Still, there are probably still plenty of blondes - its just that they are comparatively rare in a human population of 13 billion.
Awesome - on that note, I wanted to confirm...you said the cure for Joker's illness we have wouldn't work on adults, and that makes sense...but from this:
I understood we would be curing Joker with the Peak Human treatments. Right?
Nah, it will be rubbish because it will end with the reaper's corpses being piled up in the galatic garbage dump and dozens/hundreds/thousands of Sherpards sitting in deckchairs sun bathing on Rannoch because of no insects.
After all, I'm sure that 'Shotgun Princess' Shepard would have ended up in the story somewhere...
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Tachikoma's Aunt
Priestess of Yog-Sothoth
- Location
- Variable
Then why aren't redheads rarer than they are today as well? Red hair is a recessive trait, and it's fuckloads less common than blonde is to begin with. That explanation makes no sense.
Even if you assume that red hair is retained primarily by cosmetic gene therapy, it doesn't work because then you'd expect quite a few people to make their kids blonde too.
Oh that's easy! Everyone knows that heroes dig redheads, but Bioware decided to go for a trope inversion....
....Okay, I think I might have gotten that wrong....
Van Ropen
Angry, angry about elves.
Are you trying to make sense of one of Bioware's bullshit fluff explanations? Particularly one put in place because blonde hair makes the shitty texturing and flaws of the engine more obvious?
Tachikoma's Aunt
Priestess of Yog-Sothoth
- Location
- Variable
Right, sorry about that. My fridge-logic processor doesn't have an off switch, so sometimes I get a bit carried away.
Pretty much. I think this video covers it pretty well:
added to my tech spreadsheet as "Eternal Youth"
Added to the Revised Tech Tree as well. Speaking of which:
@Esbilon You need to update the Tech Tree link on the front page to the one above.
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