Jan 26, 2007

Cloning Neanderthals and Absolute Advantage

Using Neanderthal DNA we might soon be able to clone a Neanderthal. Assuming that they have IQs of at least 80 or so, we would definitely benefit from doing this.

Neanderthals might be better at many tasks than humans are. They could, therefore, greatly contribute to our economy.

Imagine, for example, that Neanderthals were better at mathematical reasoning than humans. Having some cloned Neanderthal math geniuses around to help us with physics and engineering problems could be worth trillions to the world economy.

Or perhaps Neanderthals will turn out to be brilliant novelists, graphic artists or surgeons. The upside of cloning Neanderthals is so much greater than any possible downside that I think we should definitely clone them as soon as we have the technology.

Plus, imagine that around 35,000 years ago Homo Sapiens went extinct whereas Neanderthals went on to develop genetic technology. Wouldn't we want them to bring us back from extinction?