Seeding Other Worlds With Human DNA

[All Seeing Eye]

The ocean received organic matter from the land and the atmosphere, as well as from infalling meteorites and comets. Here, substances such as water, carbon dioxide, methane and hydrogen cyanide formed key molecules such as sugars, amino acids and nucleotides. Such molecules are the building blocks of proteins and nucleic acids, compounds ubiquitous to all living organisms. A critical early triumph was the development of RNA and DNA molecules, which directed biological processes and preserved life's "operating instructions" for future generations. But the origin of life was triggered not only by special molecules such as RNA or DNA, but also by the chemical and physical properties of Earth's primitive environments.

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Let's pretend that the newly discovered Gliese planet is indeed Earth like and has liquid water, let's pretend that life does not exist there however. What if we sent a probe to that particular Gliese planet with Human DNA and micro-organisms in order to "Infect" that planet.

After Billions of years would this DNA etc cause the development of intelligent life?

Is it at all possible to use Human DNA to seed an alien world in order for that world to develop Human like beings after Million/Billions of years of evolution?

 

[RobertVA]

The DNA of complex organisms requires the support of other structures like the cell membrane and all the proteins and other chemicals inside it. In turn the individual cell requires the complex support system of other cells in the individual organ and the body as a whole. Even a zygote in the earliest stages of cell division would require the moisture and warmth of the mother's reproductive system.

The development of a bio-system would require the initial "efforts" of simple genes that could endure with a few simple proteins in simple single cellular organisms.

Like any population living in isolation they would find their own "path" towards survival and eventual evolution into more complex forms. While there would be some influence on the basis that form follows function the results would be conspicuously different. The development of a sentient species would not by any means be certain. It would probably not take the form of the humans with odd facial ridges that appeared so often on the various Star Trek spinoffs. There would be a slim chance that something as bizarre as the creatures that chased Kirk in the 2009 film would develop intelligence after a significant fraction of a billion years.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

I'm merely suggesting that we seed the planet with whatever is necessary for life to evolve and implant within that "seed" Human DNA so that that Human DNA plays a role in the development of life over the Billions of years.

I imagine it would be like placing the Human DNA in there as a template and over Billions of years life evolves around that template.
They wont necessarily look or be Human like but the DNA might eventually evolve and intelligent species.

 

[JarodRussell]

The thing is: we don't know. It's just a theory. There is no scientific evidence as to what happens if you "seed" another planet with life, because nobody has done and observed that before. It could very well go "poof" because of some factors we don't know yet.

Recently they found data suggesting that the "primordial soup" theory could be bullshit and that amino acids can form in the atmosphere. Which means that life on Earth could have formed entirely differently than we've assumed.

 

[RobertVA]

DNA without the necessary support (nutrients, cell membrane, cell plasma, oxygen etc) would quickly break down into simpler inorganic chemicals. That is why viruses can't function without a host cell at least as sophisticated as a bacterium. Human DNA would attempt to form structures that need assistance in the form of oxygen, nutrients and waste removal from the womb's lining.

Any attempt to seed a lifeless planet would probably require some sort of photosynthesizing capability to, over a period of many centuries, establish an oxygen atmosphere that would support animal life. Once enough oxygen was available the simpler the animal life introduced into the ecosystem the more millennia it would take for it to evolve into something sentient (if it ever would). Less sophisticated organisms equivalent to slugs or centipedes would be more likely. By that time our descendants would probably evolve into something we would have trouble recognizing.

I'm skeptical that interstellar colonization will be practical for a long time, but I think a multi-generation space habitat or an AI "captained" hibernation ship maintained during the voyage by some sort of robot repair crew is more probable.

 

[sojourner]

Didn't I read just recently that they now doubt that planet exists?

 

[Silvercrest]

I'm merely suggesting that we seed the planet with whatever is necessary for life to evolve and implant within that "seed" Human DNA so that that Human DNA plays a role in the development of life over the Billions of years.

I imagine it would be like placing the Human DNA in there as a template and over Billions of years life evolves around that template.
They wont necessarily look or be Human like but the DNA might eventually evolve and intelligent species.

Why does the DNA have to be human?

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Didn't I read just recently that they now doubt that planet exists?

Yeh I did read something to that effect. But then I'm not really surprised because the name is a dead give away:

Gliese.

Why does the DNA have to be human?

Because Humans are intelligent due to the make-up of their DNA of course. The whole idea is to seed an alien world with Human DNA so intelligent life will evolve from that DNA template on that world over billions of years.

 

[diankra]

Didn't I read just recently that they now doubt that planet exists?

Yeh I did read something to that effect. But then I'm not really surprised because the name is a dead give away:

Gliese.

Why does the DNA have to be human?

Because Humans are intelligent due to the make-up of their DNA of course. The whole idea is to seed an alien world with Human DNA so intelligent life will evolve from that DNA template on that world over billions of years.

That is so wrong that it's breathtaking. Yes, Human DNA codes for big brains and hand dexerity, but it doesn't inherently produce any 'intelligence' more than a dog or a primate. ( I guyess the analogy is that the DNA creates a computer with a large memory, but it doesn't load any software beyond the basic boot-up 'instincts').
Intelligence is taught by the parents and experiences... and current humans are 'designed' to be born prematurely (by the standards of most mammals) on the assumption that they have parents to keep them alive through an unusually long helpless stage.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

That is so wrong that it's breathtaking. Yes, Human DNA codes for big brains and hand dexerity, but it doesn't inherently produce any 'intelligence' more than a dog or a primate.

Humans are intelligent because their brains allow it, any being on another world that has evolved over billions of years via a Human DNA template will have the same level of intelligence. Like Humans they too will learn to make fire, build tools and create a language.

Intelligence is taught by the parents and experiences... and current humans are 'designed' to be born prematurely (by the standards of most mammals) on the assumption that they have parents to keep them alive through an unusually long helpless stage.

Sorry but no. All animals learn from their parents. Lions learn to hunt by watching their mother, a Dolphin will learn to water walk with it's tail my mimicking other Dolphins that learnt to do it. Humans are no different in that respect.

Intelligence is inherited by DNA, how that intelligence is used is down to evolution and learning and Humans are intelligent enough to learn how to use technology an genetically inherited intelligence.

If the plan is for a species on an alien world to evolve intelligence then the DNA you want to use is Human DNA because Human intelligence is Genetic.

If intelligence wasn't Genetic then you'd be able to teach a panda how to be a Human, to talk walk and work. But you can't do that, it's not down to simply being taught and learning how to do it, your DNA needs to be advanced enough to allow you to learn.

 

[diankra]

That is so wrong that it's breathtaking. Yes, Human DNA codes for big brains and hand dexerity, but it doesn't inherently produce any 'intelligence' more than a dog or a primate.

Humans are intelligent because their brains allow it, any being on another world that has evolved over billions of years via a Human DNA template will have the same level of intelligence. Like Humans they too will learn to make fire, build tools and create a language.

Intelligence is taught by the parents and experiences... and current humans are 'designed' to be born prematurely (by the standards of most mammals) on the assumption that they have parents to keep them alive through an unusually long helpless stage.

Sorry but no. All animals learn from their parents. Lions learn to hunt by watching their mother, a Dolphin will learn to water walk with it's tail my mimicking other Dolphins that learnt to do it. Humans are no different in that respect.

Intelligence is inherited by DNA, how that intelligence is used is down to evolution and learning and Humans are intelligent enough to learn how to use technology an genetically inherited intelligence.

If the plan is for a species on an alien world to evolve intelligence then the DNA you want to use is Human DNA because Human intelligence is Genetic.

If intelligence wasn't Genetic then you'd be able to teach a panda how to be a Human, to talk walk and work. But you can't do that, it's not down to simply being taught and learning how to do it, your DNA needs to be advanced enough to allow you to learn.

You're misthinking what the DNA provides: it provides Humans with a big brain into which learning can go if it's available.
Pandas and dogs can only be taught so much because their brains are smaller, and they're born with them fuller formed, and less flexible for new information.
Crudely, animals are born with most of their instinctive intelligence in place. Human brains grow massively after birth, and form most of their neural connections after birth due to outside stimulus.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

You're misthinking what the DNA provides: it provides Humans with a big brain into which learning can go if it's available.

Right, so the level of intelligence Humans possess is due to their DNA. Thanks for confirming what I'm saying.

 

[diankra]

You're misthinking what the DNA provides: it provides Humans with a big brain into which learning can go if it's available.

Right, so the level of intelligence Humans possess is due to their DNA. Thanks for confirming what I'm saying.

You're not taking the point though:
The Human brain is paid for by an unusually vulnerable infancy, as humans ae born very premature compared with most mammals.
That vulnerability is an evolutionary disadvantage unless there's enough of a pack/tribe/societal structure for the young to be protected as they grow.
Once that that support system exists, there's an evolutionary niche for a large brained species with the potential for intelligence.

So seeding a world with human DNA would not ensure that it eventually evolved human-derived intelligence: at best, the brain capacity genes would end up as unexpressed 'junk DNA' in the species that resulted.
Some of them might follow the same evolutionary route to intelligence. But that would be down to evolving to better fit and exploit their environment, not any inherited human influence.

 

[Silvercrest]

Why does the DNA have to be human?

Because Humans are intelligent due to the make-up of their DNA of course. The whole idea is to seed an alien world with Human DNA so intelligent life will evolve from that DNA template on that world over billions of years.

If the plan is for a species on an alien world to evolve intelligence then the DNA you want to use is Human DNA because Human intelligence is Genetic.

If you're allowing for billions of years of evolution, then you're just trying to replicate what has already happened here on Earth. And it didn't start from human DNA here. (This is ignoring the question of whether what you're describing would even work.)

I ask again, why does the DNA have to be human?

 

[Rett Mikhal]

The biggest question of all is why you would curse the universe with another human-like lifeform.

 

[Silvercrest]

Well, besides that....

 

[Myasishchev]

Sure, you could seed another world with human DNA.

That is, the DNA inside about sixty kilograms of meat, organs, bone, and water.

Otherwise, no. You couldn't seed the DNA alone of a cyanobacterium.

 

[Deckerd]

I wondered where we were going with that 'seed' thing.

 

[Myasishchev]

^Well, to clarify, you could shoot human DNA at a planet, I guess. It wouldn't cause any harm. Although you might be arrested for public lewdness.