Science, Theory, and Myth

My understanding of the assertion that there was really no such thing as race is that it's supposed to be based on science, that there is no real biological difference between the races. Like a lot of stories, there is probably some truth in it, but not as much as some people think. If you skin out a Black guy and a White guy, and lay the carcasses side by side, I suppose the casual observer could not tell which was which. I would think, though, that a doctor or scientist could tell from their DNA or something, but maybe I'm wrong. I seem to remember reading something about bone structure differences, but it was a long time ago and I don't remember the details. Be that as it may, we don't commonly see people with their skin off, and there certainly are observable racial differences between live people. Of course, there is no such thing as a pure race anymore, most people have traces of this and that in them, whether they know it or not. Still, even a half breed like President Obama looks decidedly different from any previous U.S. president. How can anybody say there is no difference?

That coy-dog story has been around the Midwest since we were kids, and there is probably some truth to that one too. A domestic dog would not have to live with the coyotes and be socially accepted by them in order to get his genes into the pool. He wouldn't have to compete with them for food either. All he'd have to do is go on the prowl one night, come home in the morning, and curl up by the fire after eating the food that his humans provided for him. His lady friend would raise the pups as coyotes and, assuming that their dad was a big dog, they would be bigger than the average coyotes, which wouldn't hurt them a bit in the coyote pecking order. Of course, just because something could happen doesn't mean that it did happen.

Wolves have been in the news around here ever since a local trapper accidently caught one in a coyote trap a few years back. Since then, the DNR has caught at least one in a live trap, tagged it and released it. They said it was a youngster, which would seem to indicate that they are living and reproducing in our area and not just passing through on their way to somewhere else. Anyway, they said it was a true wolf, and not a wolf-dog hybrid, which means there must be some reliable way to tell the difference. If they can identify a wolf-dog hybrid and a wolf-coyote hybrid, they must be able to identify a coyote-dog hybrid. Have you heard of anybody doing that in your area?

Isle Royale is a really big island in Lake Superior. It's closer to Canada than it is to the U.S., and it is believed that the first wolves in modern times got there by crossing from Canada when the lake was frozen over. I don't think they have any deer there, but they do have Moose. When the wolves first started showing up, the park rangers were killing them to protect the moose. At some point it was decided to just let nature take its course and see what happened. You see, there are not many places in the East that are isolated like that with so little human activity, so it's a good place to study how Nature works without human interference. The moose and wolf populations have ebbed and flowed over the years but, for the most part, they have maintained a sustainable balance. Right now the wolves are at a low ebb and the moose are starting to eat themselves out of house and home, so there has been talk of bringing in more wolves. Last I heard, the humans were still keeping with their hands off policy. The past few winters have been mild and the lake ice has been scarce, but this year Lake Superior froze over hard as a rock. The U. S. and Canadian Coast Guards are having a hard time  breaking open the shipping channels as we speak, so maybe some new wolves have already crossed over on their own.

I remembered another case of animals that could be interbreeding but they don't because they hate each other. Lions, leopards, and cheetahs all share the same habitats in Africa. I don't know if there is an organized plot, but the bigger cats will kill any of the smaller cats that they can catch. Nobody messes with the lions except the other lions, and they frequently fight to the death over territory and females. According to National Geographic, more lions are killed by other lions than by any other cause.

Now that you mention it, I have heard of Turing and his test. I don't think artificial intelligence is that big of a deal anymore, they already have computers that think more rationally than a lot of people I know. The next big thing is artificial consciousness. Of course, you could program a computer to say it had consciousness, but how would you know if it was telling the truth? It's like that French guy said: "I think, therefore I am, but I'm not so sure about the rest of you guys."