[ExI] 23andme again

spike spike at rainier66.com
Sun Jun 2 04:58:15 UTC 2013


>... On Behalf Of spike

>...I want to start an online group for 2 sigma and above Neanderthal, and
perhaps another group for 2 sigma and below.  Then we get a local picnic
together with both groups, the highs wearing red tags and the lows wearing
blue, see if we can notice any differences between the highs and lows.
COOL!  Now THIS my friend is SCIENCE!  23AndMe is a true crowd-sourced
honest to evolution SCIENCE PROJECT!   https://www.23andme.com/     Hey,
just because it's real science doesn't mean we are not allowed to have some
fun with it.  {8^D  spike
_______________________________________________

I understated my case.  Recall the history of the human genome project: back
in the late 90s, there was all this buildup of how this sequencing would
solve this disease and that one.  So in about 2000 or so, Craig Venter came
along, we got the human genome ahead of schedule.  Then suddenly, nothing
happened.  After I thought of the Neanderthal/No-anderthal picnic idea, it
occurred to me that this kind of social/crowdsourcing activity really is the
only way, or certainly the best, fastest and most fun way to develop and
exploit the information we got out of the human genome project.  If we put
together such a picnic, perhaps we would notice that the red tag people are
more likely to have a bald spot or wear concave glasses, whereas the blue
tags were more likely to drive sports cars and drink iced coffee.

For that matter, it wouldn't need to be that particular trait.  It could be
anything that has a spectrum. 

Who the heck knows what we would find?  That's why it's called research.  If
we knew what was there, it would be called refind.  

My point: the traditional scientist in a lab coat working a 9 to 5 cannot
get at the kinds of insights we might be able to discover if we do things
like the caveman picnic.  Any big metropolis will likely have a few thousand
proles who have done the 23 thing, so that means perhaps a couple hundred
two-sigma outliers, and with that we might be able to get enough of them to
come to some local park or a fun place such as the San Jose Tech Museum to
gather and observe the difference between the cavemen and the vexmen.

Has anyone any clue how to organize something like that?

spike 




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