<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">I agree with Ben - mostly. Accidents causing brain damage, for one, are not genetic. I do think it makes sense to ask just what environments can bring about what consequences, without the need of assigning relative power to Nature or Nurture. Apparently no environment can make up for an earlier environment of being raised by wolves - which is assuming that the kid was fairly normal to being with;; which is maybe a shaky assumption, since the reason he was in the woods may have been that he was defective to begin with.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">And what about Huntingdon's chorea? It is so strongly genetic that nothing can change what it does to the carriers later in life- at least with current medical knowledge. Nearly pure Nature.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">So it comes down to what you can change and what you can't, which is the title of a great book I read decades ago. In the future there will be genetic manipulations that we can't do right now - lack of knowledge or maybe ethical problems.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">bill w</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">On Sat, Oct 27, 2018 at 4:12 PM Ben Zaiboc <<a href="mailto:ben@zaiboc.net">ben@zaiboc.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<div class="m_-5050648130816788482moz-cite-prefix">On 26/10/2018 23:12,
<a class="m_-5050648130816788482moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:extropy-chat-request@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat-request@lists.extropy.org</a> wrote:<br>
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Re: [ExI] opinion</td>
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<div class="m_-5050648130816788482headerdisplayname" style="display:inline">From:
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SR Ballard <a class="m_-5050648130816788482moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:sen.otaku@gmail.com" target="_blank"><sen.otaku@gmail.com></a></td>
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<div class="m_-5050648130816788482headerdisplayname" style="display:inline">Date:
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26/10/2018 20:18</td>
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ExI chat list <a class="m_-5050648130816788482moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank"><extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org></a></td>
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<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">I think it
would take extreme environments to alter the power of
genetics.</div>
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<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">bill w</div>
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<div>I’m not saying genetics have no power, I’m asking how much
power they have in relation to environment. Is environment
10%? 25%? I sincerely doubt it would be near or above 50%
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The whole 'nature vs nurture' concept is a red herring. Genetics and
environment aren't two competing forces, they're so intricately tied
up with one another that it's not even sensible to consider them as
separate things. A 'gene' on its own is useless (in fact the word
itself is of doubtful use). What we call 'Genetics' is already a
complex interaction between environmental signals and sequences of
base pairs. Look at the production of haemoglobin as a simple
example. There's no such thing as 'The Gene For Haemoglobin' really.
There's some information and some environmental influences, and a
large set of interactions between the two that produce different
types of haemoglobin for different purposes. One can't achieve
anything without the other, so it makes no sense to say something
like "how much power genes have in relation to environment". It's
like arguing about whether petrol or pistons are more important in
combustion engines, but a lot more complicated.<br>
<pre class="m_-5050648130816788482moz-signature" cols="72">--
Ben Zaiboc</pre>
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