What would happen if an artificial community of rats was manipulated to give a changing pattern of 'role distribution' over time such that it mimicked the human race's changing patterns?
For the sake of simplicity, let us say that one human generation = 100 rat generations.
Initially, at T-10,000 years (~500 human generations, about 50 years in rat timescales) we have 100% wild type rats.
As the generations pass, some rats will begin to take the role of 'farmers' and the rest will remain wild. The farmer rats will have an electronic tag fitted which will allow their environment to be controlled in respect of that particular rat.
All rats will be able to 'forage' for a slightly inadequate amount of food, but the bulk of their food will only appear when the 'farmer' rats have done enough 'work'.
Farmer rats will release food upon having delivered a certain amount of work. These rats will be able to eat only the food released by their own work, in addition to the small amount available for foraging. Wild type rats will still be able to forage, they will also have access to food released by all the 'farmers'!
The proportion of 'farmers' will increase from 0 to 90% until we get to T-200 years when we will introduce a third role, the 'worker rat'. The worker rat will not be able to work for food or forage for food. Worker rats will enjoy a life of leisure but will be dependent on 'farmer' rats for food. Wild rats will still be able to forage and take food from both other kinds of rat.
Throughout the experiment, rat populations will be allowed to follow the same rate of increase as human populations did over the relative timescales. Whenever populations get 5% bigger than they should be, food supplies are constricted for one generation and excess rats are removed at random, sacrificed, and examined at the molecular level.
That's the basic outline anyway. The purpose of the experiment is to look for neurological changes that might give us clues as to whether or not the changing role structure of the human race could be responsible for the development of psychiatric disorders such as autism, adhd, sociopathy and related.
We won't be silenced by those who won't be silenced. Quis custurd pudding et π.
Showing posts with label Mice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mice. Show all posts
Monday, 26 December 2011
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Cannibals for Autism?
Yes that's right. Autism is cannibals. Don't worry, like all animals that consume conspecifics, autistic people will not attempt to eat conspecifics if fed (and in some cases restrained).
This explains why there are more combinations of genetic expression found in autism than any other genetic disorder. It is because it relates to something so fundamental as 'Which way does which food travel?', this is applicable to any higher animal and certainly any mammal.
Whenever a population of animals experiences cannibalism, that population adapts to attempt to recognise predation in it's midst. Any obvious predators are removed but still nature keeps churning out new cannibals! It's not the baby's fault, it's the fault of the human race for being so good at producing food yet paradoxically easy to catch and eat, superficially speaking.
They say that when you've met one person with autism you've met one person with autism. Nature and evolution will try absolutely anything to get at the best meat (which she has been making for herself all this time).
Cannabis is the cure for Cannibals. That's the hypotheses, will it stand the test of time? Only the elimination of all other possible aetiologies for autism would leave the obvious, however unthinkable, as the strongest contender.
Those autistic mice by the way, what the researchers don't tell us is that half these autistic mice are eating the other mice when they don't feed them and put them in a cage together.
This explains why there are more combinations of genetic expression found in autism than any other genetic disorder. It is because it relates to something so fundamental as 'Which way does which food travel?', this is applicable to any higher animal and certainly any mammal.
Whenever a population of animals experiences cannibalism, that population adapts to attempt to recognise predation in it's midst. Any obvious predators are removed but still nature keeps churning out new cannibals! It's not the baby's fault, it's the fault of the human race for being so good at producing food yet paradoxically easy to catch and eat, superficially speaking.
They say that when you've met one person with autism you've met one person with autism. Nature and evolution will try absolutely anything to get at the best meat (which she has been making for herself all this time).
Cannabis is the cure for Cannibals. That's the hypotheses, will it stand the test of time? Only the elimination of all other possible aetiologies for autism would leave the obvious, however unthinkable, as the strongest contender.
Those autistic mice by the way, what the researchers don't tell us is that half these autistic mice are eating the other mice when they don't feed them and put them in a cage together.
Friday, 15 July 2011
A body has one function with many directions.
I like that; "The purpose of the body is to move the stomach to a new foraging location."
I mentioned it to Matt, who didn't get the joke.
Accepted, the body has functions (level 0) and it has itself (level 1) and it has 'return from deviation from levels 0 and 1' which is level 2, then there is 'regulator for level 2' which is level 3, then there is 'regulator for level 3' which is level 4, then there is the 'stabilisation system for level 4', which is level 5 then finally we get to level 6:
The human endocannabinoid system (HECS). Imagine your body has a puppeteer working it, and that puppeteer has a puppeteer working it, and so on, until you get to the guy at the top, the HECS. No matter how much the guy at the top rattles his jig, the guy at the bottom never stops breathing.
You can even cut the strings of the uppermost jig and the guy at the bottom doesn't stop breathing (even if he does seem a little bit grumpy).
I mentioned it to Matt, who didn't get the joke.
Accepted, the body has functions (level 0) and it has itself (level 1) and it has 'return from deviation from levels 0 and 1' which is level 2, then there is 'regulator for level 2' which is level 3, then there is 'regulator for level 3' which is level 4, then there is the 'stabilisation system for level 4', which is level 5 then finally we get to level 6:
The human endocannabinoid system (HECS). Imagine your body has a puppeteer working it, and that puppeteer has a puppeteer working it, and so on, until you get to the guy at the top, the HECS. No matter how much the guy at the top rattles his jig, the guy at the bottom never stops breathing.
You can even cut the strings of the uppermost jig and the guy at the bottom doesn't stop breathing (even if he does seem a little bit grumpy).
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