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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/27/2022 2:33 PM, Will Martin
wrote:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:02B35C94-D46B-4350-911C-F8EFCACEE1B5@mac.com">
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<div class="">Technically, yes, members of different races can
interbreed and members of different species cannot. Meanwhile,
the Star Trek universe referred to beings from different planets
as different species even though, in that universe, they were
capable of interbreeding. In that way, basically, all hominids
were one species, and green, grey, blue, tan, brown and other
colors of skin, bumpy foreheads, pointy ears, horns and whatever
mark different races.</div>
</blockquote>
<p>Assuming that <b>mut</b> is a scientific term that equals the
scientific, not layperson's, meaning of <i>species,</i> then the
interbreeding definition is one possible meaning of it, but not
the only one. That definition is that a species is that taxonomic
classification of creature whose members can mate and regularly
produce fertile offspring. A mule, for instance, is the offspring
of a male donkey and a female horse, but it is usually infertile,
so mules are not considered a separate species; they're hybrids.</p>
<p>But that's not the only scientific definition of <i>species.</i>
Depending on the branch of science, a species might be defined by
DNA, or morphology, or ecology. It's not so simple as whether or
not they can interbreed.</p>
<p><i>Star Trek's</i> cross-breeding aliens are so outrageously
impossible that to even try to make sense of it is an endeavor
doomed to failure. Such characters are almost always writers'
attempts to introduce a human perspective into an otherwise alien
culture, at least in early stories. Once a franchise establishes
that hybridization is inexplicably and freely available, hybrid
characters start to show up simply because of the sheer
impossibility of them not to.</p>
<p>This is an instance where one must simply suspend one's disbelief
and move on.</p>
<p>One also has to wonder whether <b>mut</b> is a pun on the
English word <i>mutt.</i><br>
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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:02B35C94-D46B-4350-911C-F8EFCACEE1B5@mac.com">Even the
purest Brits are “Anglo-Saxons”, which doesn’t sound very much
like a pure race.</blockquote>
<p>The Britons were in Britain long before the Angles, Saxons, and
Jutes. So were the Picts, but good luck tracing your ancestry to
them.<br>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
SuStel
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://trimboli.name">http://trimboli.name</a></pre>
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