[extropy-chat] Animals

[Avatar Polymorph]

The sun's expansion would destroy life on Earth in 500 million years, well
prior to it turning
into a red giant.

Humans are not "actively selecting" for intelligence in dogs and cats, not
even in sheepdogs.
Otherwise some very smart cats and dogs would have come into existence some
time ago.
Intelligence selection for dogs would also relate to increasing their
vocabulary and social
signalling. Active selection would have produced results even in one or two
centuries. (Say
500 cat generations = 250 years?)

All animals down to the smallest deserve to be boosted, even if this entails
integrating human
architecture (neural) into them. The ecosphere and the nature of the planet
(its physical nature)
will be irreversably changed by the Escalation (Singularity). The direction
of that change is a
matter of different opinions by different persons.

'Ecological pressure' does not operate on immortals with control of their
environment, as Damien
notes in his argument for Exes. Fashion may temporarily (or permanently)
push beings into particular
forms and groups.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Spike" <spike66 at comcast.net>
To: "'ExI chat list'" <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 6:59 PM
Subject: RE: [extropy-chat] Animals


>
> > On Sun, 8 Feb 2004, David Lubkin wrote:
> >
> > > (a)  Migrate people and industry off-world, and turn the
> > > planet into a nature preserve...
>
>
> Here's a thought experiment: imagine suddenly removing
> all humans from earth but leaving it otherwise unharmed.
> Would not that open a huge ecological niche into which
> would rush some other beast?  Those who understand the
> mechanisms of evolution, would that cause evolutionary
> pressure for chimps, gorillas or bonobos to evolve sentience?
> Or would it actually remove ecological pressure, since humans
> are actively selecting for intelligence in dogs, cats,
> and perhaps to some extent primates?
>
> spike
>
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>