Alexandra Goryashko, A Wild Bird and a Cultured Man. The Common Eider and Homo Sapiens: Fourteen Centuries Together

More or less primitive homo sapiens have always secretly dreamt about, or plainly believed in immortality. All cultures had and still have beliefs, traditions, rituals, legends, old stories, and fairy tales about immortality. Unfortunately, as science and technology progressed, human immortality is a remote ideal yet. In addition, as technology development speeds up, it challenges the social nature of humankind; a possible result is people alienation. It is the purpose of this paper to propose a new prospective: opposed to the common feeling that technology alienates people – in their most intimate nature – the authors believe that modern technologies and human nature (defined by its innermost dream of immortality) converge. The ancient human dream of eternal life can be achieved through technology: i.e. human digital immortality. A day will come when the entire technical capabilities will allow personalities to be copied into a computer. Thus immortality could be provided in a virtualized form, heaven being replaced with a super computer.

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The metaphysical standing of the human: A future for the history of the human sciences

History of the Human Sciences ◽

10.1177/0952695118807118 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 32 (1) ◽

pp. 23-40 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Steve Fuller

Keyword(s):

20Th Century ◽

19Th Century ◽

Edmund Husserl ◽

Max Weber ◽

Homo Sapiens ◽

Human Sciences ◽

History Of ◽

The Common ◽

Century Science

I reconstruct my own journey into the history of the human sciences, which I show to have been a process of discovering the metaphysical standing of the human. I begin with Alexandre Koyré’s encounter with Edmund Husserl in the 1930s, which I use to throw light on the legacy of Kant’s ‘anthropological’ understanding of the human, which dominated and limited 19th-century science. As I show, those who broke from Kant’s strictures and set the stage for the 20th-century revolutions in science - from Hegel, to John McTaggart, to Max Weber - typically were pursuing crypto-theological questions about how a finite being can comprehend an infinite universe. This journey is about the ‘common measure’ of being human, which is what links Plato to Kuhn, but has been most consistently taken up by law. I suggest that in seeking this ‘measure of man’, we may discover that to be human is not necessarily to be Homo sapiens, which would suggest a radical reorientation of the history of the human sciences.

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Evidence suggesting that Homo neanderthalensis contributed the H2 MAPT haplotype to Homo sapiens

Biochemical Society Transactions ◽

10.1042/bst0330582 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 33 (4) ◽

pp. 582-585 ◽

Cited By ~ 53

Author(s):

J. Hardy ◽

A. Pittman ◽

A. Myers ◽

K. Gwinn-Hardy ◽

H.C. Fung ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Linkage Disequilibrium ◽

Neurodegenerative Disease ◽

Sequence Comparison ◽

Selection Pressure ◽

Homo Sapiens ◽

Linkage Disequilibrium Structure ◽

Homo Neanderthalensis ◽

Common Founder ◽

The Common

The tau (MAPT) locus exists as two distinct clades, H1 and H2. The H1 clade has a normal linkage disequilibrium structure and is the only haplotype found in all populations except those derived from Caucasians. The H2 haplotype is the minor haplotype in Caucasian populations and is not found in other populations. It shows no recombination over a region of 2 Mb with the more common H1 haplotype. The distribution of the haplotype and analysis of the slippage of dinucleotide repeat markers within the haplotype suggest that it entered Homo sapiens populations between approx. 10000 and 30000 years ago. However, sequence comparison of the H2 haplotype with the H1 haplotype and with the chimp sequence suggests that the common founder of the H1 and H2 haplotypes was far earlier than this. We suggest that the H2 haplotype is derived from Homo neanderthalensis and entered H. sapiens populations during the co-existence of these species in Europe from approx. 45000 to 18000 years ago and that the H2 haplotype has been under selection pressure since that time, possibly because of the role of this H1 haplotype in neurodegenerative disease.

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Differential investment and costs during avian incubation determined by individual quality: an experimental study of the common eider (Somateria mollissima)

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2002.2262 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 270 (1514) ◽

pp. 531-537 ◽

Cited By ~ 50

Author(s):

Sveinn Are Hanssen ◽

Kjell Einar Erikstad ◽

Vigdis Johnsen ◽

Ove Bustnes Jan

Keyword(s):

Experimental Study ◽

Common Eider ◽

Somateria Mollissima ◽

Individual Quality ◽

Avian Incubation ◽

The Common

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Female sociality in the common eider duck during brood rearing

Canadian Journal of Zoology ◽

10.1139/z82-421 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 60 (12) ◽

pp. 3326-3331 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

J. K. Schmutz ◽

R. J. Robertson ◽

F. Cooke

Keyword(s):

Maternal Care ◽

Adaptive Significance ◽

Common Eider ◽

Somateria Mollissima ◽

Brood Rearing ◽

The Common ◽

Nutrient Reserves ◽

Prolactin Hormone

This study investigates the potential adaptive significance of the behavior of female common eider ducks (Somateria mollissima) which have no young of their own ("aunts") but accompany other females and young. "Aunts" exhibited ambivalent aggression and protection toward ducklings. There was no evidence that the presence of "aunts" enhanced the survival of the ducklings they accompanied. Both females which had their clutch removed and females which had not laid eggs behaved as "aunts." The level of circulating prolactin hormone in "aunts" was lower than in incubating females and similar to the basal level of males. We therefore rejected the hypothesis that maternal care was misdirected during hormonal adjustment from breeding to nonbreeding. We suggest that "aunts" which have lost a clutch or brood, spend some time feeding away from the colony, and then return to the nesting grounds after replenishing their nutrient reserves. Upon returning, "aunts" may select sites for nesting in future years. During this time, they are temporarily attracted to broods. We propose that "aunts" flock and fend off predators during an attack in an attempt to seek safety in a flock rather than to protect ducklings of other females.

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