Skutten
Skutten t1_iv2zvr7 wrote
I think one of the misunderstandings going on here, other than misunderstanding how mtDNA is passed on to the next generation (always mother to daughter), is that we don't carry all of our our ancestors DNA, our genes are simply not many enough. Some ancestor DNA is lost from generation to generation, in time this will mean some DNA is gone forever. Scientists try to measure differences by comparing mutations, the differences in DNA samples, between different groups and then excluding a third group from 2 other groups. That's how they could assume Neanderthals share DNA with non-African people but not with Africans. (But they also discovered that Africans share ancestry with some archaic humans that maybe shared ancestry with Neanderthals, so maybe Neanderthals mixed with humans at different times).
To assume the fertility of different "hybrids" is just too much speculation. At several other (later) occasions, there was a clear disparity between the numbers of males and females from different group mixing with other groups, implying some kind of aggression ("war") or male-only migration.
Skutten t1_iv1j2jr wrote
Reply to comment by atomfullerene in Why don't we have Neandertal mitochondrial DNA? by nodeciapalabras
This is the correct answer and no other conclusions are valid outside of this. I really recommend anyone interested in the subject to read "Who we are and how we got here" by David Reich*. The book explains how mtDNA works and talks about our Neanderthal genes, among other very interesting things, i.e. how they have "found" ghost ancestors in our DNA, people/species that have to have existed but there are no findings of them yet.
*P.S. I myself got the book recommendation from a fellow Redditor in this sub, thank you!
Skutten t1_j7bsixa wrote
Reply to What happens when the AI machine decides what you should know? by RamaSchneider
I have only issues with 2 of those:
"Content that is sexually explicit or obscene""Instructions for ... unethical behavior."
As long as it isn't potentially harmful or illegal, there is no reason to block this kind of information.
I agree on your general concerns though, many people still have a huge misconception on things like ChatGPT; it doesn't matter that is isn't intelligent, has a soul etc. If it can provide better output (feedback, answers, instructions etc) than you can easily find otherwise (Google search, books in a library, your colleague or smart cousin), then it will be widely used. If (actually, when) it can provide you with better output than anything else available to you (your intellect, an education, to pay and hire an expert to help you out) it will by any means works as an AGI, at which point most people all over the world would be using it constantly for most problem-solving. That will disrupt society on it's foundation. Of course we have to think about this, since it seems it's closer than we imagined. It's just not about how a corporation wants to promote itself, it'll be how a corporation basically controls peoples actions, their entire lives.