[Dragaera] Boing!

[Davdi Silverrock]

On 9/7/06, Jon_Lincicum wrote:
> "Davdi Silverrock" wrote:

> >But I think that "descent" (even with the "genetically" modifier)
> >ought to be reserved for the use of referring to those ancestral
> >organisms that provided the vast majority of an organisms's genes.  If
> >an organism is a true hybrid or chimera, then "descent" might be
> >appropriate.
>
> Hmmm... Define "Vast Majority".

How about "greater than 99.9%" identical?  I'm pretty sure that the
glowing bunny had at least that, if not more, in common with its bunny
parents.  The snippet of GFP gene is far less than that.

> Is a human being with 3 out of 8 Great-Grandparents of African-American
> heritage not of African-American descent?

Now you're changing the standard.

> Is it your contention that this is a different case, merely because these
> are different races and not different species?

Race is an artifical concept to refer to subgroups within the same
species.  So yes, it's a very different case.

All humans are genetically identical to within 99.9% or so of our genes.

>
> >Dragaerans are *descended* from humans.  Dragaerans were genetically
> >modifed in various ways, including some genes *partially derived* from
> >their respective House animals (except Jhereg).
>
> Well, I would say that Dragaerans are descended from other Dragaerans. If
> some of those Dragaerans have a bit of genetic material in their makeup
> from some other critter, does it really matter how exactly it got there
> originally?

No... my whole argument has been over whether Dragaerans can be
considered to be "descended" from those other critters.

Regardless of how the genes of the other critters were introduced into
the Dragaeran genome, they are obviously a small percentage (less than
0.1%, I would guess) and possibly non-functional, or at most, of very
minor functionality.

> >That seems like more correct wording to me, anyway.
>
> Really, if your objection is just to the word "descendant", I'll happy
> listen to suggestions for a different phrase, if you have any. The point
> wasn't really critical to my original observation in any event.

I think I would stick to just saying "genetically modified with a
small number of genes derived from various critters".  It's longer,
but more accurate.  We don't have simple concepts to cover various
cases of "has an X% transgenic relationship with animal Y".