On Mon, May 26, 2014 at 1:58 AM, Russell Standish <li...@hpcoders.com.au>wrote:
> On Mon, May 26, 2014 at 11:12:56AM +1200, LizR wrote: > > On 25 May 2014 23:32, Telmo Menezes <te...@telmomenezes.com> wrote: > > > > > > > > On Sun, May 25, 2014 at 1:15 PM, LizR <lizj...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > >> I guess it would be pedantic to point out the silliness of aliens > wanting > > >> to have sex with humans. I mean, we're more closely related to grass, > > >> jellyfish and slugs than we are to aliens... > > >> > > > > > > Makes sense, of course, but I'm not so sure. I don't think we know > enough > > > at this point to estimate the diversity of the solution space for > > > biologically evolved entities with human-level intelligence or above. > It > > > could be that something very similar to us is the only viable > solution, or > > > the most likely solution. > > > > > > Functionally similar (perhaps), but certainly not genetically similar. > We > > aren't even gentically similar enough to interbreed with any other > species > > that evolved on the same planet under very similar conditions to us - for > > example, we are very closely related to chimps, but we still can't > > interbreed with them. > > > > It is however fascinating that we're so fascinated by this idea. From "I > > married a monster from outer space" via Mr Spock to "Mars needs women!". > > > > I agree with Liz. Anyone who thinks otherwise has no feeling for just > how ginormous the number 4^1 billion is. That is the size of the > solution space using Terrestrial DNA (4 base pairs, around a billion > base pairs makes up human DNA). > > For comparison, the number of protons in the visible universe is a > mere 4^132 or so. > Sure, but the representation is very brittle. How many of those 4^1 billion leads to viable organisms? This is why, when exposed to radiation, we get cancer instead of super-powers... Then, the space of solutions may be further restricted by the evolutionary process itself. Just because some solution is valid, that doesn't mean that it is likely that it can be discovered through iterative improvement. Best, Telmo. > > Cheers > -- > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > Principal, High Performance Coders > Visiting Professor of Mathematics hpco...@hpcoders.com.au > University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au > > Latest project: The Amoeba's Secret > (http://www.hpcoders.com.au/AmoebasSecret.html) > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
