[ExI] 23andme again

spike spike at rainier66.com
Wed Jun 5 14:54:53 UTC 2013


 

 

>. On Behalf Of James Clement
Subject: Re: [ExI] 23andme again

 

 

On Wed, Jun 5, 2013 at 1:24 AM, Dan <dan_ust at yahoo.com> wrote:

 

>>.Are you sure of the 23AndMe results themselves?...out of wedlock children
and promiscuity are not something invented in recent times. So, I'm not
totally surprised.)

 

>."In a recent study in England, for example, Baker (2002) has suggested
that about 10% of people do not have the genetic father which they think
they have. This varies tremendously dependent on some variables, especially
social class. " James

 

If you have ever spent any time doing genealogy the old fashioned way, the
kind that involves looking through census records on microfilm and paper
books, you know that in general, genealogy is the very best example of
crowdsourced amateur "science."  I use the term science a little loosely,
but it works: figuring out who spawned who is a map of natural history in a
way.  If you have visited archives, you know how much knowledge has
accumulated, from the collective efforts of perhaps millions of people, with
perhaps hundreds of thousands who have gone to the trouble of recording the
findings and binding them in a book.  

 

If you have never visited a genealogical library, it isn't too late but it
is certainly getting late.  Those will likely be gone in the next couple
decades.

 

Just yesterday, I discovered a bound book in my mother's collection in which
someone had done a complete genealogy of a guy who lived in the USA in the
early 1700s.  I am among his larvae.  I compared with my own notes and
realized this distant cousin did it all correctly, and went beyond what I
already knew.

 

It is foreseeable to me that in twenty years, there will be enough
accumulated knowledge in DNA archives, that a client can submit a sample and
the archive will send you back a complete history of your ancestors, not the
legal ones necessarily but the genetic ones.    

 

Note this, remember who said it.  We can imagine competitions, where we
score a point if our legal father is our father, half a point if a parents
is the legal offspring of our grandparents (so a total of one point
available in that generation) a quarter of a point for each legitimate
grandparent, and so forth.  Then we calculate a ratio of genetic ancestors
to legal ancestors ratio.  Go back three generations, you have a total of
three points available, so if you have one illegitimate grandparent and one
illegitimate great grandparent, your score would be 2.25/3, or .75.  Then we
could have competitions to see who descended from the flooziest family!  Or
which parent contributed the most promiscuity to one's own character, so if
one is oneself sleazy, you know which parent or grandparent is most to
blame.  

 

Great grandma, we are closing in on your loose ways.  Your youthful
indiscretions are clawing their way out of the grave; we are coming.

 

Is this a great time to be living, or what?

 

{8^D

 

spike 

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