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Everyone on Earth is your cousin (2015)

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Re: Everyone on Earth is your cousin (2015)

#81

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

1_player wrote: post #79
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it it incredibly funny to worry about the heat death of the universe. That's so far beyond our scope of comprehension and the limits of the lifetime of the entire human race it does not matter in the slightest. It feels like the most absurd form of existential egotism.

Yeah that's fair enough. I care more about the end of my consciousness and my own dust turning to dust yet again than the heat death of the universe, something that's so far away, and asymptotically won't ever happen. Is it really the end if nothing can "experience" it?

> I care more about the end of my consciousness

Oh yeah, that one is very personal and I continually struggle with it.

Re: Everyone on Earth is your cousin (2015)

#82

Post by chucksmash »

junga wrote: post #80
ngngngng wrote: post #32

Pro tip, get the old folks talking, and take out your phone to record. Whatever they're talking about, even if they're talking about nothing at all. They'll all be gone soon, and having video of your boring everyday interactions with them is better than having only your memories of them.

> […] and having video of your boring everyday interactions with them is better than having only your memories of them. How comes? To me, the most valuable things from the past are the memories. Not photos, video and stuff.

There will come a time when you realize you can no longer hear how someone's voice sounded when you think about them. It can be comforting to go back and hear them in their own voice again.

Re: Everyone on Earth is your cousin (2015)

#83

Post by [deleted] »

SkeuomorphicBee wrote: post #76
Jensson wrote: post #17

Almost every country was very homogeneous just 50 years ago, so your family tree wont branch out like that normally. USA is a bit different since it is a nation of immigrants, but mostly people barely even left their villages historically.

Not just the USA, the whole American continent is one big exception to that homogeneous countries rule. But if you were to single out a single country, it should probably be Brazil instead, being by many accounts the most heterogeneous country in the world. Fun fact: in the fake passport circles, "Brazilian" is a popular go-to nationality because no one will question a Brazilian nationality based on your face/race/co…

[deleted]

Re: Everyone on Earth is your cousin (2015)

#85

Post by haihaibye »

todd8 wrote: post #77
irrational wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even then, you and your sibling could, statistically, share zero genes (you each get 50% from each parent and it is possible you each got a different 50%). Your own parents and children are the closest relatives you have since you are guaranteed to have 50% of your parent’s genes and same with your children.

Humans have approximately 30,000 genes. These genes are sequences that appear in our DNA which is divided up amongst our 23 chromosomes. Offspring receive these genes from their two parents so during meiosis we receive some genetic material from our mother and some from our father. There is about a 50% chance of receiving the mother's gene and a 50% chance of receiving the father's gene for each of the 30,000 genes i…

The number of crossover events is 55-75 not once per gene, your numbers are off by a few orders of magnitude

Re: Everyone on Earth is your cousin (2015)

#86

Post by haihaibye »

scandox wrote: post #65
Merrill wrote: post #64

First cousins share 1/8 of their DNA, which is sort of meaningful. Second cousins share 1/32 of their DNA or about 3%, which is really marginal in terms of their being any resemblance or affinity due to DNA. By the time you get to third cousins the shared DNA is down to 1/128 or less than 1%. So I've lost interest in tracking down any relatives beyond second cousins.

I'm very ignorant about these matters but I thought we all shared the vast majority of our DNA? I mean as humans are we not all 99.9% the same ... DNA wise? What does the 1/8 mean in this context?

When talking about relatives the fraction refers to the amount of variation in the population.

To simplify, say every 100 bases are random and all humans share the 99% that are the same.

A brother and sister have 50% in common out of the 1% that varies, so they are 99.5% identical relative to whole genome or 50% relative to the variation.

It depends on what population you use as a reference too. Relative to white people, two average white people are unrelated. Relative to the 'average human' they are as related as uncle/nephew. Relative to Bushmen/Pygmy/Andaman islanders, closer still. Relative to a banana, much closer than siblings (in the usual measure) though not quite identical twins

Re: Everyone on Earth is your cousin (2015)

#87

Post by agumonkey »

ryanmercer wrote: post #58
DoingIsLearning wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is probably one of my greatest regrets with my grandmother. I was planning to do exactly this for quite a while but life had other plans, she is gone now and although I have great memories of her, I do regret not having a video record of her story telling to be able to share with her great-grandkids.

My father died 12 days before my 13th birthday, cancer. My 7th grade tech teacher (also sadly now dead from leukemia) sent me home with a camcorder to interview dad, to record memories, because his father died young too. What did I do? I sat in a chair and pointed it at the tv and recorded episodes of Battlestar Galactica (1978) reruns on tv... Sigh. Although, dad was pretty sick then from both the cancer and treatme…

interesting counter intuitive plot

methinks a microphone would often be better suited then, unless voice is also ruined by the disease

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