Today’s RSS feeds and email have included quite a few items that reinforce the idea that we now live in a science-fictional world.
First up via Mike Glyer I found this article in The Independent concerning DNA analysis of Neanderthals. The latest view appears to be that Neanderthals were sufficiently different from humans that interbreeding could not have occurred. That’s bad news for Clan of the Cave Bear fans, but it also appears to rule out that idea that the Neanderthal species was somehow bred out of the gene pool. Naturally eager journalists will immediately latch onto the idea that they were wiped out by aggressive humans. As to the truth, well, there’s still plenty of rooms for books to be written.
Meanwhile The Guardian has an article on the future of warfare that suggests that pharmacological weapons and brain-machine interfaces will play a major role in future conflicts. And if that seems a little far fetched, here is a story about a robot whose brain is made from rat neurons. Somewhere in the great publisher party in the sky Mary Shelley’s ears will be pricking up.
And finally, because information wars are something that the blogosphere now deals with on a daily basis, here is Eszter Hargittai at Crooked Timber analyzing the “Google has obliterated Georgia” meme that has been floating around recently.
Have you heard?! Google removed cities in Georgia from Google Maps! Or so were the claims that started making rounds on the Interwebs yesterday so you may well have heard it. But did you believe it? This incident has been a fascinating example of how quickly some folks will believe and spread something without further reflection.
Oh dear me yes.
speaking of our sfnal world, have you read Heat, or how to stop the planet from burning?
Because I found myself envisioning a future world based on his recommendations and its very interesting and strange.
Airships are involved.
Of course, its mostly interesting because some of his recommendations make far too much sense. But airships!
Airships are good, but I’ve read enough of Monbiot to know that I don’t want to read any more.
It’s worth noting that the Neanderthal DNA tested was mitochondrial, which is transmitted matrilineally. The negative result does not preclude a male Neanderthal / female Cro-Magnon admixture to the Cro-Magnon genepool (but I still think it’s unlikely).