There's a lot to be said here about how the homunculus theory of human reproduction - the medieval belief that sperm actually contained tiny little miniature humans that just needed to be planted in a womb and grow - never really any away That's still the popular idea of DNA
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Replying to @arthur_affect @sophienotemily and
People really think that if you could flawlessly "read your DNA" it would be like a little photograph of you That the things we actually observe about human beings - what you look like, your personality, your IQ - are "written into your genes" in some objective way
2 replies 11 retweets 74 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @sophienotemily and
And it's at best an oversimplification and at worst an active and damaging lie The whole thing where pop culture "clones" are exact xerox duplicates When in real life identical twins often don't even really look the same
1 reply 8 retweets 69 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @sophienotemily and
Like, it's not uncommon to meet twins where one of them is taller than the other, or heavier, or has different hair or skin, especially as they get older (and are no longer living in the same house with the same environment)
4 replies 3 retweets 63 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @sophienotemily and
And, like, both twins "really" look like that, they're both the way they "really" should be, there's not some Ideal Human "encoded into their genes" that's the way they "should" look under "ideal conditions" That's not a real concept, that's Nazi shit
4 replies 7 retweets 75 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @sophienotemily and
I find it interesting to note who is talking about 'ideal' humans and what appearance people 'should' have. The relevant term is 'would' have... Moreover, I don't recall saying TW 'shouldn't' transition, merely that underlying biology remains unchanged.
6 replies 0 retweets 27 likes -
Replying to @unwitod @sophienotemily and
"Would" have when? There are millions of different things you can make using one set of DNA, many of them not meaningfully human (look at the HeLa cells and other tumorous growths)
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Replying to @arthur_affect @sophienotemily and
You have been spaffing on about this for a while now, but you seem to be arguing against something you imagine has been said to you. It's quite odd.
1 reply 0 retweets 5 likes -
Replying to @unwitod @arthur_affect and
The twin studies you are citing precisely require the distinction you seem to think should never be made (because "Nazi shit"): what is caused by underlying genetics vs what in the environment effects gene expression. That is why they are interesting
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Replying to @unwitod @arthur_affect and
Chu doesn’t see the difference between twin studies to determine the genetic and environmental influences on traits, and Nazis stitching twins together for shits and giggles. For him even your genes are just an ‘environment’.
1 reply 0 retweets 5 likes
I'm on record as saying I think if I had different genes I'd still exist and be me, at least to the same degree that I'd still exist and be me under the counterfactual where I was born in a different city or a different year
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Replying to @arthur_affect @unwitod and
Was it sensible to go ‘on the record’ with that? In what sense would something with different genes and different environmental experiences be you? If this was possible why is there only one of you?
2 replies 0 retweets 9 likes -
Replying to @Shatterface @arthur_affect and
Hahahaha he keeps getting better and better. Now a genetically different 'Arthur', subject to (necessarily) different environmental interplay with genes, is still the same person? Wow!
4 replies 0 retweets 6 likes - Show replies
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