Mike Burr - log

[bio] Domesticateatability is a trait

Well of course it's a trait, in the same way that "red" is the trait of some cars.

But I more mean one that lives in the *genome and comes and goes and varies and is in conflict with other traits, like "aggressiveness" and "piebald".

And it exists in humans too.

It makes some sense that this could be a trait that is resurrected and called upon from time to time. Do we know for sure that cows will not some day rule supreme? Suppose that was the future, or maybe instead suppose they are just legion, like people are today. They're everywhere and they thrive and they've got lots of adaptions and epi-adaptions. Maybe by some crazy series of events the whole planet earth turns into endless green pasture and they utterly take over.

If that were to happen, they would have their domesticateability trait to think for their circumstances. Sure we milked them and ate them, but we also lovingly carried their genome into the future for them. We're long gone. We can't even breath anymore on account of the cows. They just rolled right over our factories and hospitals in their 100s of billions. Highways were unusable due to the meters-high cow corps flows that would block them completely every few miles. Slums are now built on the top of herds where the occupants just mine for meat to cook by digging, to be cooked by the dung they've collected.

Who's the real victim here, hm? Who I ask.