Time-scales

> All of a sudden there is some tarnish to the preferred son,
> and more of a gleam to the burdensome daughter.
>
Unfortunately humans with their relatively slow reproduction cycle, i.e.
needing to wait around 15 years before starting a new generation /gene cycle
(and for intelligencia as much as 35 years to start reproduction) it can
create huge gaps and definetly change cultures and not be responsive enough
for only creating minor changes. It may even (when skewed long enough and
thwarted with consumerism) create a new paradigm, such as DINK's (double
incomes, no kid's) where offspring is not even considered in favor of self
satisfying.

> Some will care and other's won't give a damn
> as long as she's HOT.

Ahh yes, the gonad factor :-) Anyways baldness in Space-faring men doesnt
seem to be a major detriment. Jon Luc Picard seemed to attract more than his
share of hotties. OH some like the borg queen may have been "hot" in an
acquired taste sort of way, hehe.

> And what to do about it? Who knows best? My friend, the cat is out
> of the bag so what should we do?

At times I do think the Luddites had a valid point. Perhaps we should
regularly do cultural intrespect to keep in focus what it is to be "human"
and measure potential changes to the decided upon against the decided upon
specifications.

SciFi authors many times can be important prophets helping us consider some
potential futures. Consider the division of class from HG Wells, the Time
Machine. We have these introspects now with the Constitution and challenges
that come up to it regularly now. Nope not perfect, (prohibition,
suffereage) but it does help steady the course.

Sometimes science and research simply because we can is not sufficient
reason to do it.

Can you see a Space Faring group of colonist that sail off the planet Earth,
and later decide to return for a visit...what genetic changes, either
through radiation bombardment or voluntary adjustments, or both, will have
occured... How much similarity will there be? Perhaps like Australia,
Galapogos, Bocas, the isolation will create Darwinist subjects of interest?
Perhaps Space-born future generation transmute themselves into a different
species to better adapt themselves to what they consider is a more tenable
version of human for micro colonies, Space craft etc. Able to survive on
yeast generated foods, more efficient nutrient absorbtion system so as to
cut down on recycling needs, perhaps even atrophied body parts that are
regularly removesd like tonsils or appendixes are today... Perhaps even
redevelop grasping digits on feet, new growth of tails, to resemble our
genetic past as pseudo monkeys as the answer to zero g.

What will happen when we come across each other? look at the difficult time
we have had dealing with races and nationalities, that still have the
obvious visible similarities of two arms two legs , etc. ?

Oops almost forgot. Blacks and SCA. Urbanized in NYC. Hey where is west
Nile Virus popping up ?

:-)

When I was growing up, in a small american autonomous colony over seas, I
semi arrogantly felt that I did not need to learn Spanish. After all,
English is the defacto language, I spoke THAT , so what else would I need.
Life loves a joke. My current income generating occupation is enhanced
because I know some Spanish, right here in the USA. I was in Tennessee , not
Texas or Southern California, and the number of hispanics was surprising..
Some statistic suggested that Spanish would equal English within a very
short number of years. Who would have guessed? :-)

Just when we decide we don'tneed something anymore, sure enough thats when
it bites us in the butt. Having the option with the 24'th gene sounds
intriguing... but with that toy at our disposal, you KNOW we'll play with
it. :-)

Every woman will have back problems, all men will have trouser tailors,
blonde blue round-eyed orientals will be the norm. Some youngsters will opt
for skin coloring of psychodelic nature and who knows what else... not that
there is anything wrong with that. :-) But will the human psyche in its
still developing state be able to cope withthat or will we become a planet
of neurotic basket cases bouncing from one easy fix to another looking for
elusive happiness?

Luddites of the world unite!
:-)

Humans have shown to require some stability to be healthy. Slow changes even
make us uncomfortable. Many changes that we have adopted we are now
discovering to be ill suited for our body...example being the consumptions
of grains. Grains, farmed, which is credited for starting civilization
because we no longer needed to be hunter gathers and semi nomadic. Grains
could be "banked" creating wealth/abundance. A small percentage of the
population could produce food for all, freeing the minds and bodies to other
pursuits, such as Science. Yet we now recognize that grains are far from
optimum nutrient source for our make-up, and the spource of many
digenerative diseases (which we feel we can fix with genetic manipulation).

Do you REALLY want to eat artificially flavoured yeasts?
:-)