MasterSynaps wrote:
Of course we are still of the same species and able to breed, but if the pattern of history continues our species will eventually be replaced by a more "suitable " variant primate, possibly coexist with a new variant, or go extinct without leaving a new variant. The coexist has happened in the past for a period, but Sapiens is terribly aggressive and wiped out the competition.
We've agreed that physical separation+ time is one way of differentiation. And there is another way where there is differentiation without separation. Flowers and pollinating insects show a great diversity in closely related species, many having only one combination of flower and pollinator, others of course are more diverse.
Here again we need to consider the reading of environmental and social signalling being a significant influence in driving differentiation.
The propensity of Aspies to read differently/ fail to read social signalling and it would seem to some extent to also read the phenomenal world around us in differing ways to NTs, is somewhat similar and to my mind worthy of contemplation.
We must remember that in the not so distant past, and even today in some places or with some people, interracial breeding has been taboo and often persecuted. If these views continued for an extended length of time this would effectively constitute a physical barrier.
Social signalling and attitudes have the capacity if they become deeply ingrained, to drive a wedge into the common genetic heritage, especially when coupled with even minor genetic difference.
In apparent steady state development this would take a long time, but in times of severe crisis for a species not so long. It's not unknown in Sapiens society that racial/social groups have persecuted other racial/social groups purely for being different.
This is fantasy. Nothing more.
Genetic differentiation requires thousands of generations. Our specific differentiation from our nearest genetic relatives, the chimpanzees, took place five million years ago--roughly 250,000 generations. Our species achieved its current anatomical form about 200,000 years ago--roughly 10,000 generations. How do you suppose that a discrete population of
H. sapiens aspergiensis can emerge in the midst of all of the interbreeding that will continue on an ongoing basis?
There is absolutely nothing in our cognititive and behavioural traits that is going to serve to differentiate us from the rest of the species. The causal chain appears pretty clear--my genetics contributes to the causes of my AS, but my AS does not alter my genes, nor does it make them more likely to prevail. AS is not a dominant trait characteristic. It does not better adapt me to my environment. It is simply something that differentiates me from other members of my species, like my fingerprints and my pigmentation.
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--James
19 Mar 2013, 4:17 am
