it will take at least millenia, and more likely millions, possibly billions, of years for such an evolution to occur.
so we have nothing to worry about then...
was your reply to orac misleading?
Originally Posted By: Orac
The ability for XNA to evolve changes eveything.
It does indeed. It can lead to possible horrible outcomes. Of course it is also extremely exciting. It can lead to the realization that our ideas of what life is like are hopelessly limiting. We may wind up completely rethinking what we need to look for when we are looking for life in places other than the Earth. Now we may have no idea what life will look like.
if it will take millions of years for such a small change in its evolution to occur then we would never even see a slight change.
therefore
1) why are you excited?
2) how could it lead to anything concerning our ideas?
3) what evidence or model would we use when rethinking what life would look like?
I find it hard to get excited about things that might happen in millions of years from now.
besides we would all be in some pool of hydrocarbons deep within the earths crust anyway , being pumped out of the ground to power the current dominant life forms vehicles.
unless the evolution would or could be accelerated we would not have a thing to worry about.
science fiction is a great tool to break the monotony.
and its interesting , of course it is fiction.
alot of our technology today was first dreamed up in science fiction movies and books.
and this might make a good book and movie for us science fiction fans.
also:
with GM foods messing with our DNA it might be a nice thing to
have around just in case we start having babies with gills
or little curly tails.
could be a tool to repair some of our mistakes.
