(urth) Mystery of Ascia

[Lee Berman]

>Gerry Quinn: I'm certainly interested in learning, Lee, whether from you or anybody else.
 
 
Okay, then I am willing to give it one last go-around. It occurred to me that is the trait
of discussion were kidney shape or histone frequency or other non-visible items it would be
a less politically/culturally loaded discussion. Among visible human features, surely none
is more subject to biased thinking than skin color. But perhaps this can be turned to an 
advantage. So, I'll try an alternate route to understanding.
 
I have often heard the mistaken notion that the human race is moving toward homegeneity in
skin color (usually from liberal-leaning thinkers). The idea is, "Someday we'll all be the
same golden brown color; like Brazilians!" The mistake is due to an errant understanding of 
both molecular and population genetics. Which is understandable in the general population.
 
The thinking must be that the genes for pale nordic skin and the dark brown african skin of 
Brazilian ancestors have somehow been lost in the "blending" process of making a golden brown 
babies. All one needs to do is go to Brazil to learn the mistake of this.
 
When two golden brown skin Brazilian people people mate, their children's skin color can be in 
a range from "white" to "black". Nothing has been lost. So it will remain, generation after
generation in Brazil and the world. Discounting a global eugenics movement, killing all pale white 
and dark black babies, our human future involves retained diversity in skin color not homegeneity.
 
The same principle applies to the rassenkreis or "ring species" you mention Gerry. As long as
there is mating capability possible among all adjacent sub-species in the ring, any and all
genes present in the population can and likely will be shared and not lost. That's why a 
rassenkreis population are all considered members of the same species though certain individuals,
if artificially brought into contact, cannot interbreed.
 
The same principle applies to your Neanderthal genes example. San people are found to not have
Neanderthal genes due to their extreme isolation. But the capacity for that population to absorb
Neanderthal gene has not been lost. Perhaps Dr. Sorensson's after-research tryst with !XǂHõã did
that very thing. (the symbols represent those cool click sounds in the Khoi-san languages). As
long as the possiblity of admixture exists, Dollo's Principle does not apply.
 
Thus for your hypothetical isolated Swedes in Africa population. First, as was discussed in a previous 
post, Native Swedes have likely not lost the genetic capability for extremely dark skin. It is 
just turned off. But even if, by some quirk of genetic drift, your sample population of Swedes HAD
lost that gene, it wouldn't matter.
 
As long as Swedes remain human beings they have not lost the potential for admixture and the expression
of dark skin. As your Neanderthal article demonstrates, even two closely related but different species 
of humans retain the potential to share genes (1-4%). As long as this potential remains, (even at .0001%)
Dollo's Principle is null and void.
 
Perhaps, after 20 million years, if your isolated Swedish population remained completely isolated, they might
became a new species. Once this species became so different that there was 0.00% possibility of viable mating 
with Homo sapiens, ONLY then could the rachet effect of Dollo's principle come into play. For Dollo's law to 
apply to your Swedes they would have to cease being human (in which case I think it would be fair to stop calling 
them Swedes. How about Eloi?...Morelocks?).
 
And the key issue here is that Wolfe/Severian is asserting that on Urth, beings spread across different continents 
and even different planets are still considered human. Thus no Dollo.