Re: On crossbreeding humans and chimps

Keith Elis (hagbard@ix.netcom.com)
Wed, 19 Nov 1997 00:04:19 -0500


Twink wrote:

> At 11:42 PM 11/17/97 -0500, Brian L. Fritz <bfritz@shol.com> wrote:
> >> Then there is the technical aspect of uplifting: how do we do it? I
> >> have been thinking about the cruicial role of language in
> >> bootstrapping intelligence; maybe the addition of a more advanced
> >> language system to an uplift species would be a good start?
> >
> >A mule is the offspring of a donkey and a horse. I've read some where
> >that a chimpanzee and a human are genetically closer than a donkey and a
> >horse. Wouldn't cross breeding humans with other primates qualify as a
> >form of uplifting? I think this would be technically possible right
> >now. Although it may be politically difficult.
>
> How? Artsem a few chimps using some sperm. It would seem extremely
> simple and could be done without leaving much evidence behind. It
> could be done in the wild, which creates monitoring problems, but would
> probably be much easier than incurring the wrath of preservationists.
>

Not that I see anyone really advocating this, but what exactly would this
procedure accomplish for us? And is it ethical?

My personal ethics can accomodate an uplift by way of cortical augmentation
or other such biological procedure, but only insofar as it provides empirical
data for use in similar procedures on humans. It seems unlikely that
crossbreeding a chimpanzee with a human will give us any information along
these lines and I have difficulty viewing this as uplifting a chimp, rather,
it seems more like retarding a human being on purpose, and for no valid
reason.

I think any serious proponents of this idea need to answer at least two
questions:

1. Will crossbreeding chimps and humans help us augment human beings?

and

2. Is there any other reason to do it?