Re: Geneticist required for 4017 A.D.

Thanks, Vern. I usually research way more than I use. I'm sure we all do. It will probably distill down to just one to two paragraphs, but I'd like it to be at least theoretically possible. I posted my question on a few science forums as well. If the real answer is too complicated to write simply, then I'll probably just write it as a rushed vaccine that caused sterility in the kids.

However, as a result of this exercise, I realized that the human engineering disaster can be the same one that causes civilization to collapse in our century, leading to the future world as I've written it. If I weren't doing the homework and thinking about it, the book would have had two major disasters to describe instead of one.

I went through the same exercise with a future version of an auto recycling plant that allowed me to create a very simple solution that accomplished what the scene needed without totally ignoring reality. Otherwise, I would have had acids, and one-way force fields, huge vents, etc., none of which is needed in the version I eventually settled on.

I can't wait to write the physics for dogfights in space. tongue

Dirk

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Re: Geneticist required for 4017 A.D.

Hi Norm,  sorry it it's too late to be of use, but...there is a member called Annelie Weinberg. She's a geneticist and a Professor to boot. She was an advisor to the European parliament too. Maybe you know her from Facebook? I'm an avid fan genetics and did research it for one of my books. However...sometimes science does not have all the answers, e.g. an experiment was run where rats who ran a maze with parts that were electrified, consequently their off spring were significantly better than their parents at the maze; avoiding the electrified parts much better. The point is, I was told that DNA never passes on memories but this experiment ran counter to that. So what I'm saying is their is loads of grey areas so use your poetic licence.  Good luck.

Dave

Quote Post 27

Re: Geneticist required for 4017 A.D.

Hi Norm,  sorry it it's too late to be of use, but...there is a member called Annelie Weinberg. She's a geneticist and a Professor to boot. She was an advisor to the European parliament too. Maybe you know her from Facebook? I'm an avid fan of genetics and did research it for one of my books. However...sometimes science does not have all the answers, e.g. an experiment was run where rats who ran a maze with parts that were electrified, consequently their off spring were significantly better than their parents at the maze; avoiding the electrified parts much better. The point is, I was told that DNA never passes on memories but this experiment ran counter to that. So what I'm saying is, there is loads of Grey areas so use your poetic license.  Good luck.

Dave

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Re: Geneticist required for 4017 A.D.

Dave, thank you very much. That's great to know. Also, cool that memory is passed to our offspring.

I only know Annelie through her FB posts, but I'll keep her in mind.

Thanks
Dirk

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Re: Geneticist required for 4017 A.D.

Norm d'Plume wrote:

I think this may be easier than I thought. Most of us are carriers of one disease or another due to recessive genes. It's only when you pair up two recessive genes that you get an actual disease. Given that, I think it would be easy to create an effect with an undertested vaccine. You vaccinate the population in one generation causing recessive gene damage in that generation, leading to a pair of damaged genes in 25% of the offspring, who then have an actual disease. In this case, the disease is sterility.

How's my logic?
Dirk


Down the line a 25% decrease in the number of fertile males or females, becoming sterile, in a warring tribal society (what other kind is there?) would necessitate kidnapping, abduction, slavery or humans sex servitude from other tribes who are not infected. This would be instigated by the more hawkish members of the bad-boy tribe with a view to the long-term survival of the tribe, and of course with greed and avarice thrown in.

Gee, ISIS, Boko Harum... Did you vaccinate them? They need to be vaccinated with this vaccine or just castrated!

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