Monday, February 17, 2014
The Flood
Much fun was had last week when a science supporting actor had a TV debate with a "young earth creationist". This species of person apparently goes about pretending to believe that the earth is about 7000 years old and every word of the bible is true. There was it seems some discussion of Noah, the flood and all that. Here is a thing: the flood covered the entire earth, and the rains eventually stopped. The waters abated and dry land was exposed. Here's the question - where did the water go? If the whole earth was covered in water there would be nowhere for it to drain away to. If it evaporated it would fall again as rain and start the whole mess off again. So where did the water go? To my utter delight I now discover that Leonardo da Vinci made this exact point! Try this on your local friendly creationist. Harmless amusement.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
A Non-Random Sample
USA for all its wealth has possibly unique problems not widely shared by other advanced (largely European) societies. No healthcare for many, plutocracy run riot, guns, racism, obesity etc etc.
Why?
Non-native Americans are descended from assorted immigrants from around the world whose originating societies may currently be poorer but many of which in measurable ways are doing better.
Who were those migrants and how were they selected? Randomly? No.
The migrants were of two sorts - those who went willingly and those taken against their will.
Start with the latter. From Europe many were taken as indentured servants - slaves of a sort and not willing. Who selected them? Their masters. African slaves made a substantial minority of immigrants. How were they selected? Firstly they lived within reach of the sea, secondly they were unlucky and thirdly they were out of favour with their masters who sold them. Overall not a random sample.
Of those who went voluntarily? A mixture of poorer more dependent people lured by promises , some driven by threats and some clearly so socially disturbed that the perils and uncertainties of emigration were to be preferred. Notable among this group were those seeking religious (ie fractious sectarian religious) freedom a characteristic still evident though thankfully now in terminal decline. Again not a random sample.
So today USA is largely populated by the descendants of these non randomly selected migrants. And that it is how it is in all its unique bizarre splendour.
It is now down to the molecular biologists to study the DNA to discover how Americans differ from the current populations in those countries from whence their ancestors came and offer insights which might help them recover and join the wider human community.
Why?
Non-native Americans are descended from assorted immigrants from around the world whose originating societies may currently be poorer but many of which in measurable ways are doing better.
Who were those migrants and how were they selected? Randomly? No.
The migrants were of two sorts - those who went willingly and those taken against their will.
Start with the latter. From Europe many were taken as indentured servants - slaves of a sort and not willing. Who selected them? Their masters. African slaves made a substantial minority of immigrants. How were they selected? Firstly they lived within reach of the sea, secondly they were unlucky and thirdly they were out of favour with their masters who sold them. Overall not a random sample.
Of those who went voluntarily? A mixture of poorer more dependent people lured by promises , some driven by threats and some clearly so socially disturbed that the perils and uncertainties of emigration were to be preferred. Notable among this group were those seeking religious (ie fractious sectarian religious) freedom a characteristic still evident though thankfully now in terminal decline. Again not a random sample.
So today USA is largely populated by the descendants of these non randomly selected migrants. And that it is how it is in all its unique bizarre splendour.
It is now down to the molecular biologists to study the DNA to discover how Americans differ from the current populations in those countries from whence their ancestors came and offer insights which might help them recover and join the wider human community.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)