[ExI] Human extinction (and religion)

[Damien Broderick]

At 11:57 AM 8/27/2008 -0700, Keith wrote:

>There are vast numbers of people in the past who did not 
>reproduce.  They are not our ancestors.

Many were our ancestors' close relatives, and might have increased 
their chances of having kids who thrived--so, even genetically, they 
are *partially* our ancestors.

And in terms of ideas, which are often way more important than 
allelic variants, I owe more to Newton, Turing and Heinlein than to my father.

Damien Broderick