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[Egan_BW]

I feel like you're fundamentally misunderstanding the process of natural selection.

Yeah, did you read what I posted? Your argument seems to be that imperfect memories are a beneficial trait because humans evolved this way. We could also be this way because imperfect memories were tied to a more useful trait like language, or because this is as good as memories get in something human shaped, or because all the perfect memory people were stabbed to death by imperfect memory people.

[ChairmanPoo]

I remember reading some book that said that chimpanzees were significantly better at recognizing numbers flashing onto a screen for incredibly short periods of time than humans are.

I remember reading some book that said that chimpanzees could potentially be made pregnant with human sperm with IVF

[EnigmaticHat]

I don't... think I want that to happen.  What if it worked?  What if the offspring was as intelligent as a human in some ways a chimpanzee in others?  How would we even handle that in terms of ethics?

[TD1]

As I recall, the Russians tried it and failed. I think it is theoretically not impossible, but there is no reason to believe it is possible.

[Trekkin]

I don't... think I want that to happen.  What if it worked?  What if the offspring was as intelligent as a human in some ways a chimpanzee in others?  How would we even handle that in terms of ethics?

Well, given that it's humans, we'd probably bribe legislators to declare it chattel, breed them en masse via anyone we can trap via debt slavery into serving as an incubator, then use them as a source of cheap labor to get around automation taxes while turning the low-performing ones into donor organs and trendy meat for yuppies. Then we can switch to butchering the ones that work themselves to death and jack up the price to keep it exclusive so the poor don't sully the brand.

Or did you mean how we should handle it?

[Grim Portent]

I don't... think I want that to happen.  What if it worked?  What if the offspring was as intelligent as a human in some ways a chimpanzee in others?  How would we even handle that in terms of ethics?

Theoretically speaking the best it could hope for would be to live it's life in a contained environment with access to an enclosed outdoor area and various comforts it needs while humans observe, interact with and study it. Sort of like the experiments with apes and sign language and the ensuing behavioural observations.

[EnigmaticHat]

Till it ends up to have human-like intelligence and the ability to speak and now your research team will be remembered as the guys that made the Truman Show in real life.

[Rolan7]

Whereas I immediately imagined such a species bringing the sci-fi discourse on sentient rights to a sudden head, with the inevitable and possibly rapid result of most everyone embracing the new being as a fellow person with rights.

...And/or maybe pulling some of the xenophobe attention away from trivialities like sexuality/gender expression/skin color.  Maybe selfish.  Definitely naive, throwing others under the bus never really appeases people.

[Iduno]

I remember reading some book that said that chimpanzees were significantly better at recognizing numbers flashing onto a screen for incredibly short periods of time than humans are.

I remember reading some book that said that chimpanzees could potentially be made pregnant with human sperm with IVF

If it were possible, by now someone would have succeeded without a laboratory.

[smjjames]

Yeah, just because IVF works with practically every species (well, all mammals at least, don’t know about nonmammals) doesn’t mean that the sperm will automatically be compatible.

Though on a biological note, I don’t know how far apart from the last common ancestor two species have to be in order to have viable offspring. Tigers and lions last common ancestor was about 6 million years ago, half that between us and chimps.

On an ethical and philosophical note, yeah, it’s a massive mine field.

[Trekkin]

Though on a biological note, I don’t know how far apart from the last common ancestor two species have to be in order to have viable offspring. Tigers and lions last common ancestor was about 6 million years ago, half that between us and chimps.

Well, if you want the population genetics answer, there's no hard and fast number because speciation isn't actually a sharply defined event; there's usually an increase in non-shared mutations that decreases cross-fertility between two populations, which reduces genetic exchange and increases genetic divergence further and so goes the vicious cycle. Allopatric speciation can just cause two species to drift apart and therefore remain cross-fertile for a long time after theoretically speciating, while parapatric processes depend on the linkage strength between the traits subject to selective pressure.

So there's not really a guideline.

[hector13]

The only way to really know for sure is to fuck everything and see what happens.

Make sure to wrote it down for the science though, otherwise you’re just fucking around, you whore.

[Tack]

I mean, if a Chuuman was born it'd be infertile anyway.

But I'd say that a hybrid would probably inherit the rights of whichever species is the mother.

[Reelya]

I feel like you're fundamentally misunderstanding the process of natural selection.

Yeah, did you read what I posted? Your argument seems to be that imperfect memories are a beneficial trait because humans evolved this way. We could also be this way because imperfect memories were tied to a more useful trait like language, or because this is as good as memories get in something human shaped, or because all the perfect memory people were stabbed to death by imperfect memory people.

It is a beneficial trait:

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/woman-with-extraordinary-condition-can-remember-every-detail-of-her-life/news-story/2828957d7ff0ec8aaa69930c1aaa3242

REBECCA Sharrock has an extremely rare condition called Superior Autobiographical Memory. It means she can recall her entire life in extraordinary detail.

Sounds great, right? Actually, it's a living hell:

She even has memories from before that 12th day, but can’t date them because she was so young.

Name a random day from 20 years ago, and Rebecca can tell you what she was wearing, what the weather was like and the exact sequence of things she did and saw.

“Any day I’ve experienced, I can recall,” she told news.com.au. “If I had knowledge of calendars and dates at that time, I can date them. I can remember every birthday since my first birthday.”
...
At the age of one-and-a-half, she began having dreams — and she remembers every single one. Her first was about looking through a circular window into a room filled with oranges, a fruit she loved as a child.

But what may sound like a gift also has its downsides. While the 26-year-old loves how all her memories of Easters and Christmases flood over her on special occasions, she can just as easily find herself clearly reliving bad memories — and nightmares.

Her HSAM, also known as hypermnesia, has come along with autism, obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety. She was bullied at school, and when the name of a girl who used to hit and tease her recently appeared on Facebook, she had several anxiety attacks that week.

When she remembers childhood injuries, she physically feels the pain all over again.

She didn’t do especially well at school, struggling with processing information. “My short-term memory is poor,” she said. “When it becomes long term (after a few months), it stays forever.”

Rebecca now spends time updating her blog, maintaining a Facebook page and giving talks to psychologists about her condition.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-09-18/memory-life-with-hsam-highly-superior-autobiographical-memory/10255284

She's in therapy, and she's described in this article a "talented artist" without them actually demonstrating anything she's actually created, which probably means she's unemployable. Most likely, she's receiving a disability pension because of her "superior" memory.

[ChairmanPoo]

I mean, if a Chuuman was born it'd be infertile anyway.

But I'd say that a hybrid would probably inherit the rights of whichever species is the mother.

Or not! Sometimes hybrids are fertile!