The End of the World

[commander0077again]

Well, for this Christmas season, my thoughts have turned to cheerful topics like genetic meltdown of the human race! Blofeld and friends would have a field day with this one, not to mention Bond's brother, Ernie.

I came across geneticists who have made public what has been an 'open secret' until a few years ago, it seems. Contrary to popular films of mutants, mutations are very very bad guys. Some researchers put the number of harmful mutations each human will pass on to the next generation to 100. Some say 300. In other words, we are not 'evolving' upwards but devolving downwards (genetic entropy, Mr. Bond).

The human degeneration rate is @ 2% each generation. With a 1% decline, there is a sharp decline in fitness after 300 generations, about 6000 years. If true, this corresponds to the Biblical timeframe, hm.

Dr. John Stanford, Cornell (and others) did statistical regressions of the Biblical life expectancies, from Noah's 950 years to today's 70 after 32 centuries.

Remarkable thing about the curve is that it's very similar to theoretical curves from other researchers on genetic degeneration.

And so, if the Biblical timeframe is correct, 4000 years have passed since Noah, so we have 2000 years to go! Actually, I'm not saddened at the news, if true. Reality is reality.

[Capt. Sir Dominic Flandry]

There is a cheap tv science fiction movie in that theory.

[commander0077again]

I was thinking the same thing, although maybe it could have an adequate budget. On tangent, I've always wondered why Indiana Jones never searched for Noah's Ark. You could see all the bad guys trying to take Indy out; and if the Ark was found, the baddies would want to destroy it. But of course, as in The Last Crusade, something supernatural happens and faces melt and so on.

[Kristatos]

I was thinking the same thing, although maybe it could have an adequate budget. On tangent, I've always wondered why Indiana Jones never searched for Noah's Ark. You could see all the bad guys trying to take Indy out; and if the Ark was found, the baddies would want to destroy it. But of course, as in The Last Crusade, something supernatural happens and faces melt and so on.

Probably too similar to Raiders. One Ark is enough. Plus, was Noah's Ark supposed to possess occult power like the Ark of the Covenant was? I don't know if there a reason why the Nazis (or alt-right, as I believe we're supposed to call them nowadays) would be searching for it.