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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 30 January 2026 at 9:30pm | IP Logged | 1
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LINKThat our cousins may have survived to as recently as 28,000 years ago sets me to thinking of an essay Isaac Asimov wrote several decades ago. In it he pondered the idea of Neanderthals surviving down to modern times. How would our society have been shaped by having among us intelligent beings who were human, but not us?
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Conrad Teves
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 28 January 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 2281
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| Posted: 30 January 2026 at 10:11pm | IP Logged | 2
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We have a hard time tolerating other humans for cultural or meaningless racial differences. We've killed almost everything else that wasn't food or a pet and some of that food isn't doing so well. I can't expect the Neanderthals would have faired much better.
You'll forgive me, I have a low opinion of our species just now.
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Mark McKay
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
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| Posted: 30 January 2026 at 11:11pm | IP Logged | 3
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I’ve got a little less than 2% Neanderthal DNA, so I’m about as close as you get. 🙂
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Vinny Valenti
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
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| Posted: 31 January 2026 at 2:31am | IP Logged | 4
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Slaves.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 31 January 2026 at 2:50pm | IP Logged | 5
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We have a hard time tolerating other humans for cultural or meaningless racial differences. We've killed almost everything else that wasn't food or a pet and some of that food isn't doing so well. I can't expect the Neanderthals would have faired much better. ••• You describe here what many scientists think actually happened to Neanderthals, rather negating the point of Asimov’s essay.
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Evan S. Kurtz
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 04 July 2022
Location: Canada
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| Posted: 31 January 2026 at 4:08pm | IP Logged | 6
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We have the tendency to separate that which is different from us. Look to all the “camps” that have existed through the years, or their long-term label of “reserves.” I imagine if we discovered there was another group of people out there, we’d do some version of the same thing to them. Keep them separate from us, and observe.
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Edward Aycock
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Joined: 13 July 2024
Location: United States
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| Posted: 01 February 2026 at 2:57am | IP Logged | 7
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While it wasn't really a work of deep scientific research, I remember reading "The Clan of the Cave Bear" (and the XXX-rated sequel "The Valley of Horses") when I was a teen. The first book was the only one that dealt with the Neanderthals and, despite it being fiction, I did come away from it with an appreciation for what I had always assumed were just a bunch of grunting small-brained people. (I was 14.)
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James Woodcock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 September 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 8341
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| Posted: 01 February 2026 at 8:47am | IP Logged | 8
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The human race has an incredible capacity to split into
groups/clans over the most meaningless things. We will
literally split over anything.
Sports is a great example of this. Pick a team - defend
that team against all others, hate others just because
they are not your team.
I've never really been into sports, but over the last few
years went to a few football matches - the behaviour of
the crows proved everything I thought about supporters.
THE TRAITORS or BIG BROTHER are also good examples. I
have watched the former, but not the latter.
Watching how easily people fall into camps and are swayed
by people in those camps, often for the most spurious of
reasons.
I've often thought how America would react if aliens did
visit and went to China first (and vice versa).
Regardless of the fact that clearly the aliens would be
so far beyond us technology wise, I could really see them
being framed as friend or foe, immediately, based on who
they interacted with.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135601
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| Posted: 01 February 2026 at 9:17am | IP Logged | 9
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I’ve pointed out that the Holocaust is proof that we will never have peace on Earth. If ever there was a completely artificial prejudice, it’s antisemitism. Regular White people killing regular White people.
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